Jeannette man claims Rialto stabbing justified as self-defense

The lawyer for a Jeannette man accused of the attempted murder of a former high school friend with a pocket knife said Monday his client acted in self defense.

Defense attorney Stephen Colafella told jurors that Anthony J. Sharp was tackled and flailed with a knife to break free from his attacker who lay atop of him on the street outside the former Rialto Cafe on Nov. 24, 2022. Police said Joseph R. Williams of New Alexandria was stabbed 10 times during the altercation.

“This is a case they (police) wanted to make because (Williams) got the worst of it,” Colafella said during his opening statement to the jury.

Testimony in the trial, which is expected to last about a week, will begin Tuesday.

Sharp, 23, is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment for his role in the fight that ultimately led to the shuttering of the Rialto. The restaurant and bar operated for nearly a century in downtown Greensburg.

Sharp’s arrest following the alleged stabbing prompted Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli to petition the courts to classify the Rialto as a nuisance bar. The bar’s former owner agreed to close and sell the business, which reopened earlier this year as the 3 Stone Merchant gastro pub.

The stabbing incident came nearly a year after a separate fight involving two men spilled out of the Rialto and resulted in gunfire in which one man was wounded and a bystander was shot.

Sharp, who since December 2022 has been free on $250,000 bail, contends he too was a victim of violence.

Colafella in his opening statement told jurors Sharp, a former captain of the Carlow University men’s basketball team and a senior at the school, was home for the Thanksgiving holiday when he went bar hopping with friends. At the Rialto, he encountered Williams, whom he had been friendly with in high school and whose sister he previously dated, according to the defense.

The men had words in the bar and had physical altercations before the Rialto was evacuated because of the fight.

Colafella said Williams, a decorated high school wrestler, was upset that the smaller man had bloodied his face and jumped Sharp as the men went outside.

Prosecutors conceded Williams was initially the aggressor inside the Rialto but later became the victim.

“Anthony Sharp brought a knife to a fist fight. He and Joseph Williams, the victim, went at each other and after the bar was evacuated he walked outside with a bleeding face. He (Sharp) used a pocket knife to stab and slash Joey 10 times across his body,” said Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker.

Ranker said surveillance video from inside the bar and from nearby businesses and the Westmoreland County Courthouse depicts the large crowd as it gathered in front of the Rialto but does not show the altercation between the men.

“This is going to come down to the eyewitnesses in this case,” Ranker said.

Colafella agreed, but told jurors the police never questioned the group of friends who were with Sharp that night.