WSAR NEWS

'We wouldn't have made it out alive': Man claims deadly Newport stabbing was in self defense

Jesse Machado will never forget the afternoon of Feb. 21, 2022.

 

It was the day the 36-year-old said he stabbed 43-year-old Davide Semenza to death.

 

“He was so joyful with everybody,” Semenza’s widow, Giorgia Ferretti, told 12 News last fall. “He had a big, big heart and was an amazing dad.”

 

The 43-year-old, who was born in Texas to Swiss and Italian immigrants, had just moved into a room in Newport and was working at a local restaurant prior to his death.

 

Machado explained that he went to Newport to meet up with a woman he’d met just days before in Providence.

 

“We rode around for a bit … and then she said, ‘Oh we have to stop at my friend’s house for a minute. I have to talk to him about something,'” Machado recalled. “She didn’t tell me about what and I didn’t really ask.”

 

See more at wpri.com.

Facebook