State charges dropped against woman who stabbed Asian teen in the head on Indiana bus
By Bryan Ke
The state of Indiana has dismissed some of the charges against the woman accused of stabbing an Asian student in the head in Bloomington, Indiana, in January.
Online court records reportedly show that the state has dropped the charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery by means of a deadly weapon against Billie R. Davis, 56, of Bloomington, to which she pleaded not guilty.
Chief deputy prosecuting attorney Jeffrey Kehr, who filed the motion to dismiss the state charges on April 25, stated that the move was to speed up the federal charges against Davis.
“The facts that form the basis of the federal charges are the same operative facts that form the basis of the charges here,” Kehr wrote in the motion. “As such, it is appropriate for these charges to be dismissed in order for the federal charges to proceed without delay.”
Davis is now scheduled for a federal jury trial on June 26.
The incident occurred at the intersection of West Fourth Street and the B-Line Trail on Jan. 11 when the Indiana University student, who is of Chinese descent, was waiting to exit a Bloomington Transit bus.
Davis, who was also on the bus, approached the teenager and stabbed her seven times with a pocketknife in what authorities described as a racially motivated attack.
Davis was arrested and booked into the Monroe County Jail the following day. She told Bloomington police that she attacked the student for being Chinese, allegedly stating that “it would be one less person to blow up our country.”
Her defense attorney stated in a court filing in January that she is “incapable of assisting in the preparation of her defense because of mental illness.”
Davis was charged with a federal hate crime by a federal grand jury at her indictment in Evansville, Indiana, on April 20. Her charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or death.
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