By Mark Hofmann
The Tribune-Review
UNIONTOWN, Pa. — A Fayette County woman will stand trial on criminal homicide charges for a fatal stabbing during an argument at her Lemont Furnace home.
She claims she inadvertently injured her partner as she tried to stave off an attack from his pit bull and he tried to save the dog, according to police.
Debra Ann Becker, 41, of 237 Turkeyfoot Road, North Union, was charged following the dispute shortly before 8 p.m Dec. 10, when she allegedly stabbed Ronald Alois Mudery Jr., police said.
Joe Zosky, a paramedic with Uniontown Firemen’s Ambulance, testified at a preliminary hearing yesterday that as Mudery was driven to the helipad at Uniontown Hospital, he told paramedics, “She stabbed me.”
Mudery was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital where he died about two hours later.
Trooper Scott Kroftcheck of the state police at Uniontown said an autopsy determined that Mudery’s death was caused by a stab wound to the abdomen.
Trooper Robert Wilson testified that authorities found a bloody knife blade on one side of the kitchen and the knife’s handle on the other side of the room, where there was a large amount of blood and items knocked over on the floor.
Becker told police that she and Mudery were arguing, and she wanted him to leave the home, but he refused to do so, according to court documents.
Becker said Mudery commanded his pit bull to attack her, and the dog bit her arm and ripped her shirt.
In an attempt to free herself from the dog, Becker said, she grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the dog. Mudery was stabbed, too, as he tried to protect the dog, she said.
Wilson testified that when he saw the dog in the bedroom, it had at least one stab wound on its back as well as blood.
Becker is lodged in the Fayette County Prison without bail.
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