BEACON –A Dutchess County man, who was arrested and charged with manslaughter in a stabbing death in the City of Beacon, has been cleared by a county grand jury.
The stabbing at the South Davies Terrace residence of Keano Munoz’s girlfriend occurred on May 11 resulting in the 22-year-old Munoz being charged with killing Richard Viera, 55, of Beacon.
Munoz’s attorney, Anthony DeFazio said his client was cleared by the grand jury, which saw the unfortunate incident as a case of self-defense.
“Rich Viera pulled on knife on him and said he was going to stab him over some beef that they had. He tried to stab another person and that’s when my client stabbed him once in the chest and he died a week later,” said DeFazio. “There was an investigation. The grand jury looked at all the evidence and they decided to dismiss the case. Unfortunately somebody had to die, but he had no choice in the matter.”
DeFazio said Munoz is grateful for this decision of the grand jury and he thanked the City of Beacon Police Department and the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office for their handling of the investigation.
