Claremont man charged with attempted first-degree murder

 A Claremont man is facing three felony charges, including first-degree attempted murder, following an incident at a Claremont apartment on Jan. 19.
Jorge Juan Rocha, 49, made his first appearance at a bail hearing in Dodge County District Court last Thursday before Judge Jodi Williamson where he was formally charged with first degree attempted murder while committing domestic abuse. In addition to the attempted murder charge, he was charged with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and terroristic threats.
According to the complaint against Rocha, Dodge County deputies were dispatched to an apartment at 232 Front St. in Claremont for an assault involving a stabbing. Dispatch had advised them that the suspect had fled on foot, Sheriff Scott Rose said. On arriving at the apartment deputies met with Desenia Rocha who told them that earlier in the day she and her estranged husband, Jorge Rocha, got into a verbal argument about him returning keys to the apartment as he no longer lived there.
She told deputies Rocha refused to give her the keys and left.
She said she was sleeping on the couch that evening when Rocha entered the apartment, went into the kitchen and returned and stabbed her in the abdomen with a knife. Desenia Rocha said at that time her adult son, Christopher Maldonado came out of the bedroom.
The complaint goes on to say that Maldonado told the deputies that he had been in the bedroom sleeping when he heard a commotion and when he entered the living room he saw his mother running into the hallway with Rocha running behind her.
He said he asked Rocha what was going on and Rocha then came after him with the knife. Maldonado told the deputies he locked the door to the apartment and called the Sheriff’s Department.
Maldonado then said that shortly after he closed the door his mother was knocking on it so he let her back into the apartment. He described the knife to deputies as a “turkey cutting knife.”
Deputies searched the building and found Rocha in his brother’s apartment across the hall where he was arrested.
Desenia Rocha was transported to Mayo Clinic Hospital—St. Marys Campus. She has since been released from the hospital, Rose said.
Williamson set bond at $250,000with conditions and $500,000 without conditions and he was returned to the Steele County Detention Center. Rocha’s next court appearance was scheduled before Williamson on Jan. 27. 
Rocha faces up to 20 years in prison and more than $20,000 in fines if convicted on all charges.