Bradenton man stabbed neighbor to death days after machete attack, deputies say
Less than a week before a Bradenton man allegedly stabbed another man to death, court records show he was released on bond after swinging a machete at a neighbor.
Deputies first arrested Jean Addition, 39, after they say he threatened to “chop off” a neighbor’s head and struck the man’s car with a machete during a fight over food. Days later, investigators say he fatally stabbed 40-year-old Wednes Cleophat during another altercation in the same neighborhood.
An attorney representing Addition did not immediately respond to the Bradenton Herald’s request for comment.
On Aug. 29, deputies with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home on 60th Avenue Drive East in Bradenton, where they said Addition got into a fight with a 49-year-old man. The victim told deputies that he was cooking for Addition, who he said took more than his share of the food. When the victim confronted him, Addition allegedly retrieved a machete and threatened to “chop his head off,” according to an arrest report.
Deputies said Addition then swung the machete at the victim, missed and instead struck the front fender of his car, damaging it.
Addition denied ever using the machete, telling deputies he only armed himself with a steak knife because the man had threatened him, according to the report. His wife, however, confirmed a machete was present during the incident and was on the hood of a nearby vehicle, deputies said.
Investigators said they collected both a machete and a kitchen knife from the scene.
Court records show deputies arrested Addition on a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill before he posted a $5,000 bond and was released from jail on Sept. 2.
Bradenton man faces murder charge after earlier attack
But deputies said they were called back to the same Bradenton neighborhood for a fight that ended in a fatal stabbing just days after Addition’s release for the machete attack.
On Sept. 6, deputies said they responded to another home on 60th Avenue Drive East, where they found Cleophat lying in the roadway with multiple stab wounds and covered in blood. Emergency responders took him to HCA Florida Blake Hospital, where he died the next morning, according to the sheriff’s office.
A witness told investigators he did not know what started the fight, but said Addition and Cleophat went into the street and began brawling when Addition allegedly pulled a knife from his shorts and stabbed Cleophat several times, according to an arrest report.
Detectives wrote in the report that surveillance footage from minutes earlier showed Addition walking up to a card game at the home and appearing angry and confrontational.
In interviews with detectives, Addition said he had known Cleophat for a while and that they had been in “several physical altercations in the past.”
Addition claimed Cleophat suddenly punched him in the face several times without provocation, then walked back to his house, according to an arrest report. Detectives said he told them that when he later tried to cross the street, Cleophat blocked him from doing so and attacked him with a weapon.
In this account, detectives said Addition described Cleophat using a machete — the same type of weapon Addition himself had been accused of wielding days earlier. According to Addition’s version of events, Cleophat swung a machete at him, striking him on the right side of the head before dropping the machete, the report says.
However, detectives wrote in the report that no other witnesses saw the machete, no machete was ever found and Addition’s injuries were not consistent with being struck by a machete.
Addition also told detectives Cleophat swung a glass bottle at him, the report says. He said he then pulled out a six-inch knife from his pocket and stabbed Cleophat “about 10 times,” claiming he aimed for the limbs because he did not intend to kill him, according to the report.
Addition said his wife then took the knife from him and brought it back to their home, prompting him to retrieve a baseball bat from his wife’s vehicle so he could “defend himself” because he believed Cleophat was “playing opossum.” He then allegedly hit Cleophat in the shoulder with the baseball bat, according to an arrest report.
Detectives wrote in an arrest report that they found a baseball bat in the street near Cleophat, with its handle broken off and lying nearby.
According to court records, Addition remains held in the Manatee County Jail without bond on the murder charge. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the aggravated assault charge on Oct. 17 and on the murder charge on Oct. 24.
