Girlfriend Is Found Not Guilty In Stabbing

A 32-year-old woman who admitted she fatally stabbed her boyfriend last year, but did so in self-defense, was found not guilty of all charges yesterday by a Fairfax County jury.

Fawn C. Scott testified that Dexter O. Richardson, 50, had physically abused her on repeated occasions during their three-year relationship, including breaking her nose last year. When Richardson became enraged at her in their Fairfax City home Oct. 18, allegedly choking her with one hand and beating her with the other, Scott said she picked up a kitchen knife and swung it one time into Richardson's chest.

It was not until her trial that Scott made the claim of self-defense.

A medical examiner testified that the wound was barely more than a half-inch long, but it was six inches deep and sliced into Richardson's heart, killing him. Richardson called 911 as he was dying and identified Scott as his attacker. The tape recording of the call became the crux of the prosecution's evidence.

Scott testified this week that she fled the couple's duplex on Warwick Avenue but realized that she was too drunk to drive and that Richardson was not chasing her as he usually did. She returned home and could be heard on the 911 tape crying as Richardson lay unconscious.

However, when the first Fairfax City officer arrived at the scene, having been there two hours earlier for a domestic dispute, Scott told him that no one was home. When the officer asked about Richardson, Scott said he was all right and inside the house.

When Detective Michael D. Boone arrived and asked Scott what happened, she told him that the couple had "tussled" and Richardson had stabbed himself. At police headquarters, Scott denied stabbing Richardson and did not mention defending herself.

Scott's attorneys, public defenders Dawn M. Butorac and Teresa McGarrity, constructed a history of the relationship that indicated Richardson had a history of abuse. Medical records confirmed Scott's broken nose.

A friend of Scott's said Richardson had punched his girlfriend hours before the stabbing. Another friend said Richardson was often verbally abusive to Scott. One of Scott's aunts testified that Richardson called her the day of the stabbing and told her that he was "going to [expletive] her up," referring to Scott.

After a fight with Richardson that afternoon, Scott was taken to a Fairfax County mental health clinic, where Sgt. Craig M. Buckley turned her over to a psychologist shortly before 4 p.m. Scott said she fled the Woodburn Community Center for Mental Health in the Falls Church area before any treatment decisions were made and that a furious Richardson attacked her after she returned home, causing her to stab him.

In his closing argument, Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Ian M. Rodway told jurors that regardless of his faults, Richardson did not deserve what happened to him.

"I'm not going to tell you that he was a paragon of virtue," Rodway said. "But I tell you: He did not deserve to be killed on Oct. 18, 2007."