A woman acted in self defence when she stabbed a man during an altercation in a Prince George motel room, a provincial court judge found Friday and ruled her not guilty of two assault charges.
A clearly relieved Carmelita Louise Abraham, 25, thanked judge Randall Callan upon hearing his decision and then broke into tears as she was led out of the courtroom while family members looked on.
Abraham, who remains in custody while she faces an assault charge from another incident, was accused of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon from the February incident.
She had been accused of attacking the man from behind after she was invited into the room where two others were also partying.
But Abraham testified he attacked her with the knife while she was freshening up in the bathroom but managed to kick him away and get hold of the weapon. When the man continued the assault, she used the knife on him, the court had heard.
Addicted to crack cocaine and relying on prostitution to support her habit, Abraham had told the court she had just finished with a date when the man called her up to the motel room. Expecting he would be another date, she agreed but when she found the two others in the room, she became wary and, after about 20 minutes, had gone into the bathroom.
Callan found the man, who was taken to hospital with stab wounds to his neck, the side of his head and a pinky finger, to be uncooperative while on the stand and his testimony murky. One of the other two who were in the room was also called as a witness but testified she was intoxicated and remembered little.
A few days after the incident, Abraham was arrested by police on suspicion of attempting to rob three elderly people in the Queensway-Patricia Boulevard over the span of about 90 minutes. However, charges were not pursued after the victims were unable to conclusively identify her as the attacker.
