Siesta Key Bungalows Manager Stabbed With Landscaping Light

A Siesta Key hotel manager is recovering from a stab wound after an irate customer used a landscaping light to puncture the manager's stomach, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies responded to The Siesta Key Bungalows, 8212 Midnight Pass Road, near noon for a reported stabbing. The manager, Lisa Chavez-Barrera, 39, informed a hotel guest, Carmela Angela Benevento, that she has to leave the property, but Benevento was angered, broke off a landscaping light and stabbed Chavez-Barrera with the pointed end of the light, according to the sheriff's office.

Witnesses told the sheriff's office that the suspect then threatened a bystander with the same weapon.

Benevento was immediately taken into custody and has been charged with one count of aggravated battery and one count of aggravated assault, according to the sheriff's office.

Chavez-Barrera is being treated at Sarasota Memorial Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.