Docs: Plainfield woman stabbed 1-year-old niece after dog took chicken sandwich
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Plainfield woman trying to stab her dog for taking her chicken sandwich criminally injured her 1-year-old niece Tuesday night in a hotel on the northeast side of Indianapolis, court documents say.
Sharon Key, 32, was arrested Wednesday on charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, and criminal recklessness. Police say she knowingly and intentionally created a substantial risk of bodily injury as she was trying to stab her dog with a knife.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to a report of a child stabbed at Days Inn on Craig Street near 82nd Street and I-69, just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
Officers found the infant with a knife wound to the neck. The child’s mother, 27-year-old Paige Key, told police that she had left the room where her 1-year-old was sleeping and returned to find the infant stabbed and her sister Sharon in the room.
Paige told officers that her sister ran away before police arrived.
The infant was taken to Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in critical condition but was later upgraded to stable condition. She received four stitches to her ear, at least four stitches to her head — directly behind her left ear — and a fracture to her temporal bone.
A judge granted IMPD detectives permission to search the crime scene and discovered drops of blood from the room that led downstairs and then out to the parking lot.
Paige told officers in an interview that her sister Sharon was addicted to drugs and had issues controlling her temper. She added that Sharon may also be schizophrenic and bipolar but doesn’t take her medication.
Paige said that she received a phone call from Sharon on the morning of the incident, asking if she could stay with her. Paige said that Sharon was dropped off at the Days Inn later that morning and had been drinking most of the day, but was not intoxicated.
About 10:30 p.m., Paige said that she went to Burger King with her son, her 1-year-old daughter, and Sharon. When they came back to the hotel, Paige said that she went to lay down her 1-year-old on the closest bed to the window as she went to bathe her son.
Paige said that she heard loud noises from the bedroom and saw that Sharon was holding a knife in her hand and the infant was bloody, screaming on the bed.
Sharron told Paige that it was an accident and then left the hotel room as she was calling 911.
At 2:12 a.m. Wednesday, police located Sharon sleeping behind a large bush just west of the Days Inn. Police say she appeared to have blood on her hands and arm and a cellphone covered in blood.
In an interview with police, Sharon told officers that it was an accident and that she didn’t mean to stab her niece. She said that her pit bull grabbed her Burger King chicken sandwich from the bed and ate it. She tried grabbing her dog to get back her sandwich; however, the dog growled at her.
She said she then got angry and grabbed a knife, attempting to stab the dog. The dog jumped on the bed where the infant was lying and then Sharon tried to stab the dog again but missed, stabbing her niece.
Sharon was taken to the Marion County jail, where she was being held on no bond until her initial hearing. Her initial court hearing is scheduled for Friday in Marion Superior Court 30. Judge Cynthia L. Oetjen said Sharon’s bond will be set at $20,000 surety and $6,000 cash after the initial hearing.
