A Kansas City man was found guilty of assault in the first and second degree and two counts of armed criminal action after he stabbed two people in a St. James Subway restaurant last February.

A Pulaski County jury handed down the guilty verdicts to Patricio Padilla, 47, on April 16 for the stabbing that left two injured. He will serve three years for each count of armed criminal action (six years total) before being eligible for parole, as well as five years for assault in the first degree and one year for assault in the second degree. 

Circuit Judge William Hickle presided over the case, which was prosecuted by Phelps County Prosecuting Attorney Taylor Banholzer and Assisting Prosecutor Henry Surkamp. Final sentencing is scheduled for 11 a.m. on June 22 at the Phelps County Courthouse and bond was increased to $150,000 cash or surety.

According to a probable cause statement, on Feb. 3, 2025, officers from the St. James Police Department were dispatched to the restaurant for an initial report of a man harassing a juvenile female employee. While en route, they were notified a stabbing had occurred.

Upon arrival, officers located and detained Padilla. One of the victims was a man who had been next door at the laundromat when the juvenile female employee came to him for help because Padilla was making her feel unsafe. 

When the man entered the store to help, he noted that Padilla was acting “very erratic and weird.” When Padilla tried to enter the employee only area of the restaurant where the female juvenile employee was located, along with another juvenile male employee, the man restrained Padilla and attempted to escort him out of the store.

As the man was trying to get Padilla out of the store, there was another man holding the door open for them. Padilla stabbed the man who opened the door, inflicting a large laceration on his lower back. 

He then swung back and stabbed the man trying to escort him out, imposing a small laceration on his upper torso. This man then tried to disarm Padilla, which caused another small laceration on his hand.

When officers spoke with the female juvenile employee, she told them Padilla had been “paranoid and erratic” and was “saying cryptic things to her.” She said he kept running in and out of the store and bathroom as she was making his sandwich. 

Padilla told officers he thought he could hear someone “crying or moaning” in the back of the restaurant and was trying to record it, but the employee assured him there was no one there. He attempted to go behind the register to find this person, and that’s when one of the victims restrained him and “got in the way of the knife,” he told police.

The first victim was airlifted to Columbia to receive emergency care due to a substantial amount of blood loss, and the second was transported by ambulance to Phelps Health.

The knife was seized and identified as a black folding pocket knife with a four-inch blade. Officers also located several bags of hypodermic syringes with Padilla’s personal belongings. This led them to believe he was under the influence of narcotics or having a mental health crisis at the time of the incident.

“We are thankful for the hard work Captain Pigg, Lieutenant Gaddy and other officers of the St. James Police Department put into ensuring a successful prosecution of this tragic incident,” Banholzer said in a statement. “This was a traumatic experience for several members of our community and my office will continue to zealously protect those who have been victimized.”