Billie R Davis: Charges dropped against White woman accused of stabbing student of Chinese descent
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA: Billie R Davis, the White woman accused of a hate crime for stabbing an Indiana University student of Chinese descent will not face state charges. As per court records, the Bloomington resident will however be charged with a hate crime in the stabbing of the 18-year-old woman. The dropped charge also included attempted murder, which is no more applicable.
It was on January 11, when the victim from Carmel, Indiana, was stabbed with a folding knife while she was about to exit the bus in downtown Bloomington, around 50 miles south of Indianapolis. According to online court records defense attorney Jeffrey Kehr argued that the facts supporting the state charges were the same as the federal charge. Dismissed charges include attempted murder, aggravated battery, and battery using a deadly weapon on April 25, as per ABC News.
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'Racially motivated attacks on rise'
The accused had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Davis told Police she had stabbed the woman several times in the head because it “would be one less person to blow up our country.” Lately, racial attacks on Asian Americans have increased, comprising harassment and assaults. The coronavirus pandemic added to the anti-Asian rhetoric further linked to troubled relations between the US and China. The affidavit reads that the 56-year-old stabbed the victim about seven times in the top of the head, “Davis then folds the knife, puts it back in her pocket, and returns to her seated position on the bus.”
'No prior interaction'
The bus surveillance video didn’t show any interaction between the two women before the attack. Davis’ representative in the state case, Kyle Dugger said in a court motion in January that he was seeking an insanity defense on her behalf and “is incapable of assisting in the preparation of her defense because of mental illness.” Asians constitute about 10% of the population of Bloomington, a college city southwest of Indianapolis, per the US Census Bureau.
