A woman stabs her boyfriend, a Gulf High graduate, say police, adding that it was probably in self-defense.
By STEVE THOMPSON
Published August 5, 2005
Paris Anthony DiNapoli, 21, was brain-dead and on life support. His mother asked a priest to give him the last rites.
Later, the priest called. DiNapoli's girlfriend, he said, was visiting him at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital .
"She's not supposed to be there," said his mother, Jean DiNapoli. "She's the one who did this to him."
Police say Nicole Nero, 23, stabbed DiNapoli in the heart with a kitchen knife.
But they also say it appears she acted in self-defense.
"She felt threatened for her life because he was drunk, and she thought he was going to beat her," Tallahassee police spokesman John Newland said.
DiNapoli, an avid diver, lifeguard and 2001 graduate of Gulf High School, died Wednesday after being taken off life support.
His mother, of New Port Richey, said she took some comfort in knowing his organs went to people who needed them.
"But I still should have my son," she said.
Her son and his girlfriend had been living together in Tallahassee, Jean DiNapoli said, in an on-again, off-again relationship. They had recently moved into a new third-story apartment. The stabbing happened early July 29.
Nero said Thursday that she and DiNapoli had been out that night with some of her co-workers. Both had been drinking, according to a Tallahassee police report. Nero said they argued on the way home.
Later, Nero said, he threw furniture and beat her. She said he got out some kitchen knives and threatened to skin her cat, which was hiding atop the refrigerator.
When DiNapoli came at her again, Nero said, she grabbed one of the knives and stabbed him.
"I was just scared," she said. "I thought he was going to kill me."
DiNapoli was rushed to the hospital, but blood loss had choked the oxygen from his brain.
Nero said Tallahassee police questioned her at the apartment, then took her to the police station to go over the incident again. Then they came back to the apartment to have her re-enact the fight.
A grand jury will convene to decide whether Nero will face charges, police spokesman Newland said.
Tallahassee police arrested DiNapoli last year on a domestic battery charge. Nero said Thursday that DiNapoli's arrest was because he had hit her. He later pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, state records show.
Jean DiNapoli said her son used to lifeguard at the James P. Gills YMCA in New Port Richey.
"He was funny. He was good-looking. The girls were all after him," she said. "Whatever he did, he did 110 percent."
He attended Tallahassee Community College until he ran out of money, she said. Lately, he had been doing maintenance work.
"This whole thing's a nightmare," she said. "He was all I had, my only child, my only, only."
He is to be buried Saturday. Arrangements are being made by North Meadowlawn Funeral Home.
