By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 14, 2008

Fawn C. Scott said she thought her boyfriend, Dexter Richardson, was going to kill her, because he had come close before.

"He grabbed me on my throat, hit me in my head," Scott testified. "I started thinking of the last time he did that, he suffocated me. So I grabbed a knife and I stabbed him. He was hitting me on my head, cussing me, telling me he was going to kill me."

Scott said that after she stabbed Richardson one time in the chest, in the kitchen of their Fairfax City duplex in October, he released her and staggered to the bedroom. He called 911, reported that she had stabbed him, pleaded for an ambulance, then died.

Scott testified yesterday at her murder trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court. After closing arguments today, the jury will begin deliberating whether Scott was acting in self-defense or committed murder.

Scott, 32, stabbed Richardson, 50, shortly after leaving a Fairfax County mental health clinic Oct. 18. A psychologist from the clinic explained yesterday for the first time how Scott was able to leave the Woodburn Center for Community Mental Health, in the Falls Church area, although she had cut herself with a knife and had a history of mental illness.

Psychologist Colby Mills said that the legal criteria at the time for involuntarily hospitalizing people was if they were an imminent danger to themselves or others. "Although she had engaged in some self-injury to her arm, no, she did not meet those criteria," Mills said. Because Scott had gone to the clinic voluntarily, Mills said, she was free to leave when she wanted.

"I was not able to contact the police and breach confidentiality," Mills said. "I can only do that when there's evidence that she intends serious injury to self or others."

After the Virginia Tech massacre last year, committed by a mentally ill student, the Virginia General Assembly changed the criteria for involuntary commitment from "imminent danger" to "substantial likelihood" of harming oneself or others. With the change, it was not clear whether Scott -- who was drunk at the time of the stabbing, had smoked crack, had stopped taking medication for bipolar disorder and had superficial cuts on her arm and palm -- would have been held against her will.

Scott took the witness stand to offer her version of events. The two met several years ago in their home town of Newport News and moved to Fairfax City in December 2006, in part to try to start over -- they had both been arrested for fighting with each other; both liked to drink, and Scott liked to smoke crack cocaine, she said.

Richardson could be verbally and physically abusive, Scott said. Margaret Bowser, a longtime friend of Scott's, said Richardson regularly called Scott vulgar names.

On Oct. 18, Richardson drove to Washington to pick up Scott, who had been on a two-day crack binge, she said. Kia Bridgeforth testified that she was with Scott and that Richardson immediately began cursing his girlfriend.

Once back in Fairfax City, Bridgeforth said Richardson "asked me did I know how to drive, because he didn't want me to witness him killing her." When Scott came out of the shower and an argument resumed, Bridgeforth said Richardson "hit her in the face. He attacked her."

Scott, too, said Richardson punched her in the side of the head. He then called police. Bridgeforth said she left to catch a bus. Scott said she cut herself, which she often did when depressed, and when a police sergeant arrived shortly before 2 p.m., she agreed to go to the Woodburn clinic.

Meanwhile, Richardson spent about 30 minutes on the phone with Scott's aunt, Sherba Essex. The aunt testified that Richardson told her that Scott had messed up their apartment, and he was "going to [expletive] her up."

Sgt. Craig M. Buckley said he drove Scott to the Woodburn clinic, arrived about 3 p.m. and waited with Scott until about 4 p.m., when she was taken in by a Woodburn staff member. Mills said he interviewed Buckley and Scott, called Richardson, reviewed Scott's records and decided to recommend voluntary hospitalization or a stay in a detoxification center.

"I have a problem sitting still sometimes, so I got up and left," Scott testified. She said she spotted a man she knew and asked for a ride, and he drove her home and gave her an unidentified pill for anxiety, which she said she took and soon felt worse.

Scott said Richardson immediately confronted her, then began choking and beating her. In January 2007, hospital records show, Richardson had broken her nose. Previously, Scott said, he tried to suffocate her with a pillow, strangle her with rope and had hit her with a brick.

Backed up against the kitchen sink, "I was just grabbing for anything to make him get off of me," Scott said. "I just hit him with it. I don't know how it got the heart or anything. I thought I'd gotten him in the shoulder."