Prosecutors say the 29-year-old told investigators she stabbed through a door before striking the victim.
GREENFIELD, Wis. — A 29-year-old woman has been charged with second-degree reckless homicide after a man was fatally stabbed early Jan. 28 in a Greenfield apartment on Heritage Drive near 55th Street, authorities said Saturday.
Officials identified the victim as 32-year-old Equanis Salinas and the defendant as Britney Morris. Police said they were called shortly after 3 a.m. for a reported domestic disturbance and found Salinas unresponsive on the floor. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. The case reached court on Saturday, when Morris made her initial appearance and a commissioner set a cash bond. Prosecutors and the defense offered sharply different accounts of what led up to the stabbing, setting the stage for a case that will turn on what happened behind a closed apartment door.
According to statements described in court, officers arrived within minutes of the 3 a.m. call and secured the scene inside the apartment building on Heritage Drive. Investigators said Morris was taken into custody at the residence. In court, Assistant District Attorney Abigail Heinz said the criminal complaint quotes Morris as saying she was angry and stabbed at a door multiple times before the knife penetrated and struck Salinas in the chest. “She was angry,” Heinz said, summarizing the complaint’s language. Defense attorney Nicole Muller countered that Morris had been choked and beaten and acted to stop an assault, telling the court her client had endured years of abuse and did not intend for Salinas to die.
Charging documents state that Morris admitted to stabbing and that investigators documented damage to an interior door. Prosecutors said the complaint describes the knife going through the door repeatedly, with several thrusts making it through before the blade connected with Salinas’ chest. At Saturday’s hearing, Court Commissioner Cedric Cornwall referenced the complaint and the named victim in setting conditions of release. Authorities have not publicly detailed the exact knife type or the length of the blade. Police said no threat to the public existed and called the incident domestic in nature. The apartment complex sits just south of W. Edgerton Ave., a residential area with multiple multiunit buildings.
Public records show officers first broadcast the call just after 3 a.m. on Jan. 28, and the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed Salinas’ death at the hospital. Greenfield police said the woman and Salinas lived together. Prior calls to the apartment, if any, have not been disclosed. No other arrests were announced. The district attorney’s office is proceeding on a single count of second-degree reckless homicide, a felony in Wisconsin, while preserving the option to amend charges as evidence is tested and more interviews are completed. Police have not detailed any recovered video or audio from inside the unit. Toxicology results, if ordered, were not yet public.
The case lands in a county familiar with domestic-violence homicides, though each case turns on its facts. In recent years, metro Milwaukee agencies have emphasized faster charging decisions, victim services and evidence-based prosecution when witnesses recant or are unavailable. Records show apartment-complex disturbances are among the most common calls for service in suburban departments, with outcomes ranging from warnings to arrests. The setting here—a shared unit, overnight hours and neighbors awakened by noise—mirrors prior incidents in which door damage, forced entries or barricades became central pieces of evidence. That context may guide what detectives seek next: photographs, door panels, injury documentation and statements from neighbors who heard arguing or calls for help.
At Saturday’s initial appearance, the court set Morris’ cash bond at $75,000 and scheduled the next hearing. The commissioner ordered standard conditions, including no contact with listed witnesses. Prosecutors said they anticipate additional reports from the medical examiner and crime lab testing of the door and the knife. The defense signaled it would raise self-defense, which under Wisconsin law hinges on whether a person reasonably believed force was necessary to prevent unlawful interference. Further court filings are expected to outline timelines, phone records and any injuries documented on both parties during the hospital intake and booking process.
Late Saturday, the apartment complex was quiet. A few residents said they saw police cars and evidence technicians on Wednesday morning and again later as detectives returned. One neighbor, who declined to give her full name, said she woke to “a lot of banging” before sirens echoed on Heritage Drive. Another resident said officers knocked on doors asking about sounds they heard between 3 and 3:30 a.m. Neither reported seeing what happened inside the unit. A memorial had not yet formed near the building’s entrance by evening.
As of Sunday, Morris remained jailed on the homicide charge and the case awaited its next hearing this week. Officials said more details will be released in future court filings and police updates.
Author note: Last updated February 2, 2026.