A Keewatin woman pleaded guilty in Itasca County on Monday to stabbing a man during a domestic dispute after a day of drug use and drinking earlier this month.
Rae Lynn Butzbach, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree assault resulting in substantial bodily harm. Authorities had also charged her with assault in the first degree and a second count of assault in the second degree. Those two charges were dropped in exchange to the guilty plea on the one count.
Under the terms of the plea agreement -- which a judge has to approve -- Butzbach would be on supervised probation for 10 years. Conditions of probation include serving 180 days in jail, paying a $1,085 fine, completing and following the recommendations of a chemical dependency evaluation, taking prescribed medications in the proper amounts, and completing and following the recommendations of a psychological or diagnostic evaluation. Her use of drugs and alcohol would also be restricted and monitored with spot-checks.
Butzbach is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 15.
According to the criminal complaint, law enforcement officers were dispatched to a medical situation at 401 N. Fifth St. in Keewatin about 7:15 a.m. on Aug. 8. The first officer to arrive was met by Ronald Wayne Carlisle, 49, of Jacobson, who staggered to the officer's car with stab wounds in his chest and left arm. The officer said Carlisle told him "Rae Lynn went nuts and stabbed him."
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Carlisle told authorities that he and Butzbach had been snorting Adderall (an amphetamine used recreationally for its euphoric and stimulant properties) and that he had been drinking beer and brandy before the stabbing, the complaint said. He said that "Butzbach was off of her medications" and that she "had become agitated while speaking with her son on the phone concerning money," the complaint said. Carlisle said the stabbing happened after that.
Butzbach told officers at the scene that she and Carlisle had gotten into an argument and were pushing each other around, the complaint said.
"She stated that she had stabbed R.W.C. because he had a knife first," the complaint said.
While alone in the back of a squad car, Butzbach was recorded talking on her cell phone.
"I don't know, he might be dead; I stabbed him. Goodbye," she told one caller, the complaint said.
Carlisle was hospitalized for his injuries until Wednesday.
Both Butzbach and Carlisle have criminal convictions in Minnesota. Butzbach's convictions include disorderly conduct and DWI. Carlisle's convictions include two for fifth-degree assault, one for domestic assault, one for disorderly conduct and one for DWI.
