A Brooklyn man on Monday was sentenced to 12 years in prison for breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and stabbing her partner.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced that Clifton Turner, 39, of Crown Heights, broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home and stabbed her current partner while the man was sleeping.
Turner was convicted by a jury on Sept. 23, 2024, of two counts of first-degree burglary, one count of second-degree assault and one count of petit larceny.
According to trial evidence, Turner went to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment on Pulaski Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He was seen pacing outside when he encountered the victim arriving on a bicycle. At the time, the victim did not know Turner.
Turner followed the victim into the elevator and up to the sixth floor, where he threatened to kill him. The woman pulled the victim inside her apartment for safety, leaving the man’s bike in the hallway. Turner took the bike and left.
In the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 2020, Turner returned, broke into the apartment and entered the bedroom where the woman and her partner were sleeping. He stabbed the victim twice in the left arm, cutting a vein and an artery and causing severe injury.
Turner also took both of their phones to prevent them from calling for help. The woman managed to disarm him, throw the knife out the window and flee to a nearby store, where she called 911.
Turner chased her but was arrested nearby by police. He was found riding the stolen bicycle and still had the phones in his possession.
The victim was critically injured. He lost his pulse and stopped breathing for about 10 minutes before being revived. He was hospitalized for four days.
"Today’s sentence holds the defendant responsible for a brutal and horrifying act of violence that nearly cost an innocent man his life," Gonzalez said in a statement.
