“Love” may be her middle name, but police say Brittney Love Venton had no love in her heart when she stabbed an ex-boyfriend in an argument over who controlled a TV remote.

Venton, 19, of St. Paul, made her initial appearance before a judge Tuesday after Hennepin County authorities charged her with second-degree assault in connection with the Dec. 12 attack. She was being held on $50,000 bail.

The man she stabbed, Nicholas Ervin Smith, 25, also of St. Paul, was reported in stable condition, recovering from a stab wound to the gut at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale.

In an interview Tuesday, he said he couldn’t recall what the argument was over. “It’s all a blur to me,” he said.

“I remember her stabbing me,” he said. As best he could recall, the stabbing was preceded by an “exchange of words. I might’ve said something to piss her off.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been stabbed,” Smith noted.

Witnesses told police the stabbing stemmed from an argument over a TV remote.

“One person wanted to see one thing, one person wanted to see the other, so she stabbed him in the stomach,” said Juanita Luke, who lives in the apartment downstairs from the rental unit where Smith lives. “It was like a movie or a music video. It was between that.”

She said she heard a commotion and went up to Smith’s apartment, and saw the aftermath of the attack.

Minneapolis police said they were called to the apartment in the 2900 block of Third Street North, in the city’s Hawthorne neighborhood, shortly before 6:30 p.m. Friday. An affidavit filed by Assistant Hennepin County Attorney William Richardson said that when police arrived, they found Smith “bleeding profusely” from a wound in his abdomen.

The affidavit says Smith told police he wouldn’t identify his attacker, but a witness readily coughed up the name: Venton.

Another witness “stated that victim and defendant were arguing over the TV remote,” Richardson wrote.

Venton left the scene, but returned about four hours later. One of her relatives called police. “Upon arrival, officers found defendant, who volunteered that she had stabbed victim, and now wanted to kill herself,” the affidavit states.

Luke said she knows both Venton and Smith. Smith is on 10 years’ probation for a 2005 burglary conviction in Ramsey County. His upstairs neighbor had kind words for him.

“He is so sweet,” she said. “He don’t bother nobody. He stays to himself.”

She wasn’t so kind to Venton.

“Brittney just has an attitude problem,” said Luke. “She thinks she’s Miss It, and everything’s got to go her way or no way.”

For his part, Smith said he seems to have blocked out the memory of the stabbing.

“All I remember is waking up in the hospital. I’m still here, and I’m going to be here for another week,” he said. “They said I’m going to live, so I’m happy with that.”

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.