A Central Florida woman rushed to the hospital on Dec. 22 knew she had been seriously injured by who she thought was a crazed stranger.
What Melinda Irizarry didn’t know then was how close she came to death after being stabbed 14 times. Her boyfriend was locked into the bathroom by a gun-wielding accomplice who then turned the weapon on Irizarry’s 5-year-old daughter, forcing her to watch her mother’s brutal stabbing.
Irizarry would also soon realize her alleged attacker was no stranger. Authorities say that the two had met earlier that evening when the woman, 22-year-old Brianna Alvelo, delivered a pizza to the Kissimmee hotel room where Irizarry and her daughter had joined her boyfriend for a brief “staycation,” police said.
Alvelo had left angry about her $2 tip for a $33.10 order and, according to police, returned with an unnamed male accomplice who helped her force open the couple’s hotel door.
“It wasn’t like she was just upset. It was like she was in a frenzy mode,” Irizarry told 7-News in Miami. “Once I realized the severity of the situation, I’m like, ‘My God, these people came in here to hurt us.’”
Irizarry was stabbed 14 times and required more than 200 staples to hold cuts on her arms, wrists, shoulders, back, stomach and chest. She also underwent surgeries for a punctured lung and severed tendons in her knee.
“I started crying, and I kept telling my boyfriend, ‘I think I’m going to die,’” said Irizarry, who, because of her injuries, will have to learn to walk all over again.
There was one final bit of unexpected news Irizarry would learn that night — she was 1 month pregnant. Her fetus survived the stabbings.
Irizarry said she is worried about the toll the assault may have on her 5-year-old, who was physically unhurt.
“My daughter seeing that whole thing, it’s pretty heartbreaking to me,” said Irizarry, who remains in stable condition at a local hospital. “It’s pretty traumatic.”
She doesn’t believe money was the sole reason she was attacked.
“You got the money,” she said, referring to Alvelo. “My boyfriend told you where there was more money, and you didn’t go get it.”
Alvelo is being held without bond and faces the possibility of never being free again.
“You’re not going to be able to bond out,” a judge told her during her first appearance in court.
Alvelo is facing charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, and home invasion, and she’s charged under the same statute that covers premeditated murder. The state attorney’s office said in a statement that these offenses should be punishable by life in prison, according to 7-News.
Meanwhile, Alvelo’s alleged accomplice is still at large.
“I am scared, and he knows exactly how [her boyfriend] looks,” Irizarry said. “He stared at the man for so long with a gun pointed to his head. I want them to get him as soon as possible because they’re monsters. They should not be out in the street.”
