Man gets prison time for a vicious stabbing in 2021. He almost disemboweled his victim.

FALL RIVER — A Tiverton man who in 2021 stabbed a Westport man in a vicious premeditated attack, almost killing and disemboweling him, will serve 16 to 18 years in state prison.

Chance Costa, 27, pleaded guilty in Fall River Superior Court to charges of armed assault with intent to murder, aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, malicious damage to a motor vehicle and assault and battery on a person over the age of 60.

The victim, Corey Andrade, was stabbed about 23 times. He survived the attack but collapsed on the street nearly dead with his intestines oozing out of a slash in his abdomen. According to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, the attack has left him debilitated to this day.

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What happened during the attack

On Sept. 26, 2021, Andrade was helping a 27-year-old woman bring her shopping from her car to her apartment on Plymouth Avenue in Fall River. Costa, who had previously been in a relationship with the woman, watched them, waiting behind a car armed with a knife.

In a 2022 interview with The Herald News, Andrade said he didn’t know Costa himself, but suspected Costa had slashed the tires on his car the previous night.

“I heard footsteps behind me, and by the time I turned around, the blade was into my stomach,” Andrade said at the time.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, Costa ran at Andrade with a knife and stabbed him multiple times in the torso, back, arm and neck.

Andrade said he managed to get a hold of Costa’s legs, lift him and slam him to the ground, all while Costa plunged the knife into Andrade’s torso and neck. Andrade said that when the two were on the ground, he head-butted Costa and slammed the stabbing hand to the ground, causing Costa to drop the knife.

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Andrade said he started to reach to pick up the knife but stopped when he saw his own intestines popping out of his stomach. He used his hands to push them back inside his torso, then ran across Plymouth Avenue.

Costa, he said, started punching the woman. A man who had been sitting on a porch on Plymouth Avenue and heard the screaming, charged out of the house armed with a baseball bat, Andrade said.

With the man approaching, Andrade said, Costa fled in his car, smugly honking the horn twice as he passed by Andrade and the woman.

The DA’s office said Costa threw the knife into some bushes, where it was later recovered. Bleeding heavily, Andrade collapsed in the median on Plymouth Avenue.

After the attack: Victim left near death

Andrade was treated at Rhode Island Hospital. According to his interview, he said he received seven slices/stabs to his intestines, his left lung was punctured, his colon was sliced in half, he was stabbed in the back of the neck including three wounds within an inch of his spine, and he suffered a serious slash on his left arm. This last wound tore through the bicep and extended halfway down his forearm, heavily damaging major tendons and ligaments, resulting in the permanent loss of part of his bicep.

Andrade flat-lined twice while in the hospital. He told The Herald News his arm was nearly amputated before doctors were able to save it.

He lost about 50 pounds during his hospitalization.

The DA’s office said while Andrade was in very good physical shape before the attack, he now becomes winded after minor exercise, his left arm has limited mobility, and he is constantly afraid for his safety.

Fall River police detectives assigned to the Major Crimes Division tracked down Costa the day after the attack and arrested him after a foot chase. While fleeing, the DA’s office said, Costa pushed an elderly man to the ground, injuring the man’s head.

DA says the defendant's sentence is 'significant'

At the sentence hearing before Judge Raffi Yessayan, Andrade and his mother presented an emotional victim impact statement, informing the court of the hell the victim and his family have been through. 

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Driscoll argued Costa deserved an 18- to 20-year state prison term, due to the viciousness of the attack; the defense requested a five-year state prison term.

“This was a brutal and premeditated attempt to murder the victim, who easily could have died from multiple stab wounds inflicted by the defendant,” stated District Attorney Thomas Quinn III. “The court imposed a significant prison sentence, which was appropriate based on the egregious conduct of the defendant and the suffering and injuries sustained by the victim."

Information from Herald News correspondent Greg Sullivan was used in this report.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Man gets 16-18 years in prison for vicious stabbing in Fall River