Fall River man accused of brutally stabbing former mayor Will Flanagan has competency hearing canceled after attorney withdraws

FALL RIVER – A Fall River man accused of brutally stabbing former mayor Will Flanagan in an unprovoked attack in October has a new attorney.

According to court records, 31-year-old Corree K. Gonzales was ordered in December to be hospitalized for 20 days at Bridgewater State Hospital to determine competence to stand trial in a case where he is accused of Assault with a Dangerous Weapon unrelated to the Flangan case. He had a return to court on this case to December 26th which was rescheduled to January 6th. The competency hearing was then rescheduled for January 16th where Gonzales was ordered to be evaluated for 20 more days. On Thursday, he was supposed to have another competency hearing, however, his lawyer withdrew which canceled the hearing.

While court records didn’t reveal why the attorney withdrew, when Fall River Reporter contacted the attorney on Thursday, he had an away message stating he was on medical leave until late February.

A pretrial conference was scheduled for March 6th.

In the Flanagan case, Gonzales is charged with armed assault to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for the incident that took place on October 20th at 5:00 p.m. on Hartwell Street outside of the marijuana dispensary Flanagan co-owns.

Gonzales is also facing four charges of assaulting police officers during his arrest the morning after the attack. 

He has a mental health hearing on those charges scheduled for February 18th in Fall River District Court.

Flanagan suffered life-threatening injuries to both sides of his neck and head and spent six days on life support at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford. 

He has publicly forgiven Gonzales, but is calling for change in the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Gonzales has a lengthy criminal record which includes multiple charges of assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and has the active case involving his mother in Fall River Superior Court.

He is currently being held without bail.