A late-night fatal stabbing outside a State Street-area bar Wednesday comes at a time when Madison police have beefed up their presence to combat a wave of alcohol-fueled crime that has Downtown residents and UW-Madison students on edge.

The latest incident — Madison's sixth murder of the year — claimed the life of Juan J. Bernal, 22, of Madison. Police said Bernal was not a student.

Madison police responded to an area outside the Plaza Tavern and Grill, 319 N. Henry St., around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday after a report of a stabbing and later arrested Justin R. Stout, 31, of Madison. Stout arrived recently from Tennessee after serving a prison sentence in that state for aggravated burglary, online records from the Tennessee Department of Correction show. Knoxville, Tenn., police spokesman Officer Darrell DeBusk said Stout's conviction stemmed from a 2005 theft of DVDs from Stout's ex-wife's home.

Stout, who served just over two years of his three-year prison term, was released from custody in Tennessee in August 2007, the records show.

The victim, Bernal, also had a criminal record. According to a criminal complaint, in 2005 Bernal attacked a bartender at the Good Times Bar, 57 S. Stoughton Road, after the bartender told Bernal the tavern was closing. Police and witnesses said Bernal punched the man, threw bottles of alcohol at him and then threatened him and another bar employee with a pool cue. Bernal was sentenced to 20 days in the Dane County Jail.

A phone message left with Bernal's mother at the East Side home they shared wasn't immediately returned early Thursday evening.

In Wednesday's altercation, Madison police said two groups of men began arguing in the State Street-area bar, and continued the fight outside, where Bernal was stabbed. According to police, after the stabbing, bar patrons followed Stout and Travis C. Knapp, 34, and detained Knapp. Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Knapp, of Madison, then led police to Stout's Downtown residence, where he was arrested.

DeSpain said Knapp also was arrested and tentatively charged with felony bail jumping. Knapp's arrest Thursday was "not in direct connection to the stabbing," he said. Court records show Knapp, a Downtown street artist, has a criminal history spanning five states, including Wisconsin. Knapp, who creates air-brushed paintings on Downtown sidewalks, is awaiting sentencing Oct. 27 after his conviction for felony substantial battery for punching a woman in the face in February on State Street after she asked him for a cigarette.

Plaza Tavern owner Dean Hetue said his staff told him the two arrested men left the bar, then waited outside for Bernal. He was stabbed right outside the bar's front door after he came out to have a cigarette, Hetue said. He said that his staff didn't hear any arguing and there was no physical fight inside the tavern.

'Since Prohibition'

The fatal stabbing was a shock to Hetue, who said he can't remember the last time anyone had to summon police to the popular bar and restaurant, which is frequented during the day by Downtown office workers and shoppers and at night by students. Hetue, who bought the Plaza Tavern five years ago from a family that had owned it for 40 years, called the incident "random."

"The Plaza's been here serving Plazaburgers and college kids drinks at night since Prohibition ended," Hetue said, adding, "I'm sad for Juan and his family. I'm sad for Downtown. And I'm sad for the Plaza, because that's not what happens here."

DeSpain confirmed that the bar isn't known as a trouble spot.

"I'm not aware of any problems at the Plaza Tavern," he said.

Several Plaza patrons agreed that the incident wouldn't deter them from coming to the laid-back, casual bar.

"I love the atmosphere," said UW-Madison senior Ashley Lang, 24. "You walk in the door and you just know everybody," she said, adding that news of the murder is "definitely scary."

"It's so completely uncharacteristic of anything that I've ever seen or had to deal with myself here," said Jason Hueseman, 34, who has been an employee since 2001.

Added UW-Madison alum Ed Stinson, 25, "it's not a rowdy crowd. I wouldn't expect that would happen to this place," he said.

The Plaza Tavern is in an area including State Street where Madison police have launched an effort to control alcohol-related crime and disorder. The Downtown Safety Initiative, which began this spring, employs officers working overtime in targeted areas on selected Friday and Saturday nights to patrol the vibrant State Street area, which draws a sometimes-volatile mixture of drunken students, the homeless and criminals seeking easy prey.

The program was developed in response to an increase in violent street crime Downtown, including a disturbing pattern of weekend bar-time muggings of male college students in the spring of 2006 and the murder the following year of UW-Whitewater student Kelly Nolan, 22. Nolan disappeared after she left a State Street bar in June 2007. Her body was found about three weeks later south of Madison in the town of Dunn.

Madison Police Capt. Mary Schauf said there were no extra officers on duty Wednesday night because "Wednesday night is not one of the nights that's normally targeted for extra resources."

Apartment searched

During a morning news briefing, Schauf said she didn't know what prompted the fight. DeSpain said investigators have determined "multiple" people were involved in the altercation, but they're not sure how many. Stout, who suffered some injuries during the fight, was booked into the Dane County Jail on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide.

Police said it doesn't appear Bernal and Stout knew each other. Officials declined to release photos of Bernal or Knapp, saying they preferred to keep the mug shots out of public circulation until witnesses could be interviewed.

Schauf said police searched Stout's Downtown apartment and a nearby parking lot, near where the stabbing took place, for "things that may have been discarded." The Central District captain said she didn't know whether a weapon had been recovered.

"It's very disheartening," said UW-Madison alum Ryan Libert, 23. "It surprises me."

Online court records show Stout, 415 W. Gilman St., has no prior criminal record in Wisconsin. He currently faces two ordinance violations and two alleged traffic offenses, all for the same incident on Aug. 4 on state-owned land in Ashland County. He was cited by the state Department of Natural Resources for first-offense drunken driving, possessing marijuana on state land, possessing drug paraphernalia and first-offense driving without a valid license.

Stout is scheduled to appear Sept. 16 at the Ashland County Courthouse for intake processing on the four alleged violations. If found guilty, he could face fines of up to $1,382, records show.

State Journal reporters Dee J. Hall, Devin Rose, Sandy Cullen, Ed Treleven and Karen Rivedal contributed to this article.