St. Patrick’s Day stabbing puts Duncan woman in jail

DUNCAN — A St. Patrick’s Day stabbing sent a man to the hospital and his girlfriend to jail.

Investigators said she admitted to doing it after she caught him messaging another woman and claimed she was using “marijuana, alcohol and … she was a little crazy.”

Natalia Marlen Chaires, 19, of Duncan, made her initial appearance Monday in Stephens County District Court where she received a felony charge of assault and battery by means or force likely to produce death, records indicate. The crime is punishable by up to life in prison and, due to the violence of the allegations, 85 percent of a sentence would have to be served before consideration for parole.

Duncan Police Officer Caleb Gray stated he was called shortly before 3:15 a.m. Sunday to Creekside Apartments, 5355 N. U.S. 81, regarding a man and woman arguing and arrived to find a witness point to Apartment 8 in Building B. He approached the apartment and found blood on the door and the causeway in front of the door, the probable cause affidavit states. He called for backup and got his sledgehammer and medical kit.

Using the sledgehammer, Gray got inside and saw Chaires coming from the back bedroom and he took her into custody. He found a man in the back bedroom closet wrapped in a blanket, covered in blood and bleeding from a cut to his upper left arm and under his left arm under the armpit, the affidavit states. He was taken to Duncan Regional Hospital.

A large knife was recovered in the kitchen sink that had been partially cleaned but still had blood on the blade toward the handle, according to the affidavit.

The injured man said Chaires stabbed him after he texted his aunt, Gray stated. The officer noticed the man had defensive wounds to his hands.

During questioning, Chaires admitted to stabbing the man after she saw him texting another woman, Gray stated. She said she was under the influence of “Marijuana, alcohol and stated she was a little crazy,” according to the affidavit. She also admitted to trying to clean the knife she used in the stabbing.

Held on $150,000 bond with the order to have no contact with the injured man, Chaires returns to court at 9 a.m. May 29 for her preliminary hearing conference, records indicate.