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Man Gets Three Years for Stabbing Two in Berkeley

Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN)
Friday July 01, 2016 - 10:50:00 AM

A Berkeley man with a prior assault conviction was sentenced today to three years in state prison for stabbing two men at an apartment in West Berkeley in March, prosecutors said. 

Tristan Chaix, 33, recently pleaded no contest to assault for the March 22 incident, which police said was unprovoked, and was sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Delucchi. 

Berkeley police Officer Patrick Anderson wrote in a probable cause statement that witnesses told authorities that Chaix said "he should have killed everyone there" in the incident at an apartment complex in the 1000 block of University Avenue, between San Pablo Avenue and 10th Street, at about 1:30 a.m. on March 22. 

Anderson said Chaix was at the apartment "when unprovoked he went into the kitchen, retrieved three kitchen knives and began to attack the people inside the apartment." 

He wrote, "Chaix successfully stabbed two people in the apartment before the victims were able to knock the knives out of his hands." 

Anderson said, "The people inside the apartment feared for their lives and ultimately feel if they did not fight with Chaix to disarm him they would have been murdered." 

Police said Chaix appeared to be intoxicated when he was taken into custody. 

In addition to Chaix, there were four people at the apartment and the two people who were stabbed were taken to a local hospital, where they were treated for their wounds, which weren't life-threatening, according to Anderson. 

Berkeley police said Chaix suffered a laceration in the incident and was also transported to a hospital to be treated before he was booked at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. 

Chaix was convicted of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury last Sept. 16 and was still on probation for that offense at the time of the stabbing incident. 

Berkeley police recommended that Chaix be charged with two counts of attempted murder but the Alameda County District Attorney's Office only charged him with the lesser offense of assault with a deadly weapon.