Man stabbed allegedly after he wouldn’t cough up $5 for beer run

A Norristown man was stabbed to death on Saturday, allegedly for refusing to pay his assailant's ex-girlfriend $5 for a beer run.

At about 2 a.m. police found the body of Christopher Ozuna, 30, with at least 11 stab wounds outside a house on Swede Street near Jacoby in Norristown, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

Witnesses and a surveillance video led investigators to a woman who said she'd gone to a house in that area to meet a friend but instead was met by Ozuna on the porch of the residence.

Authorities discovered that Ozuna, who lived on Marshall Street, had gone to the same house to get his friend to give him a ride to get beer, Assistant District Attorney Robert Sander said.

Both the woman, whom authorities declined to identify, and Ozuna found their mutual friend asleep. Ozuna subsequently asked the woman to give him a ride to pick up beer, police said.

She agreed to do so, but when they returned to their friend's home, the woman asked Ozuna to pay her $5 for driving him to the store, said Assistant District Attorney Kevin R. Steele.

When Ozuna refused, the woman left the house and allegedly called her ex-boyfriend, Mardis Hinton, 50, of Powell Street, and told him about being stiffed, Sander said.

Hinton and the woman returned to the house, where Hinton confronted Ozuna and told him to give the woman her money, police said.

The two men fought until, the woman said, she pulled them away from one another, according to prosecutors.

The woman told police that as she and Hinton were walking away, she noticed that he was holding a knife and that it appeared to be bloodied, police said.

Once in police custody on Sunday, Hinton allegedly admitted to stabbing Ozuna. He also led detectives to the knife used in the stabbing, which was at his Powell Street house, police said.

Hinton was arrested on first-and third-degree murder charges along with possessing instruments of a crime and related offenses, Sander said.