By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – There’s no guarantee a Mossyrock father will survive surgery for a stab wound to his neck while his “crazy” girlfriend is being held in a padded jail cell today.
Law enforcement responded yesterday to a 911 hangup call and another reporting a person was stabbed at the trailer park on the 200 block of Mossyrock Road West.
An arriving deputy saw Brian Slater with his right hand near his neck and waving at him with his other hand, according to court documents. His entire head was leaning to his right.
“Slater said his crazy girlfriend Grace Barker had stabbed him,” Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher wrote in the affidavit of probable cause.
Slater was transported to Morton General Hospital where medical staff said the wound was very deep, and was subsequently flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
He was alert and able to converse with a law enforcement officer sent to interview him, but reportedly had a punctured right lung and also a “jugular hematoma”.
Grace E. Barker, 26, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail yesterday afternoon. She was charged today in Lewis County Superior Court with first-degree assault and scheduled to go before a judge at 4 p.m.
She was not present for the planned hearing.
Defense attorney Joely O’Rourke told the judge she tried meeting with Barker earlier.
“They have her in holding, in a padded cell,” O’Rourke said.
Several people, including jail staff, mental health persons and O’Rourke tried to talk with her, but Barker wouldn’t speak or even respond, O’Rourke said.
Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Nelson told Judge Richard Brosey the state had concerns for her mental health as well.
Judge Brosey ordered her continued detention with a no-bail hold. But he made it clear she would have to come to his courtroom tomorrow afternoon, unless a mental health professional told him she was incapable of doing so.
Charging documents indicate Barker is the mother of Slater’s 10-month-old child, and while the two no longer live together, she’s homeless and he let’s her stay at his place.
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jeremy Almond was the one to confront Barker yesterday, as she came walking fast around one side of the residence toward him.
She was holding a cigarette and yelling, and continued to advance when Almond ordered her to ground. He kicked her in the chest to put distance between them, holstered his pistol, drew his Taser and eventually handcuffed her, according to charging documents.
Morton Police Department Chief Roger Morningstar reported a comment Barker made while enroute to the jail.
“So what I tried to kill him. I tried to kill him, sometimes you have to do what’s right,” Meagher wrote in the court documents.
The documents offer the following account of what Slater told law enforcement.
He said he was arguing with Barker, trying to get her to leave, and she was acting unstable.
She armed herself with a knife, he armed himself with a knife, and he tried to back down the hallway.
“Slater said he thought Barker had thrown her knife down, so he threw his in the bathroom,” Meagher wrote. “Then Barker came up to him and jabbed him in the throat with the knife.”
Slater told a questioning trooper he begged her to get help, saying he “didn’t want to die like this.” He said he then ran outside and found a friend who called 911.
First-degree assault is a class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Poor Gracie…poor kids…I was her neighbor years ago…fell in love with her children..she can be a sweet girl.
Wow! Some of you people should be ashamed of yourselves. If this happened to someone you cared about I am pretty sure you wouldnt be on here making comments like that. I know Gracie and she doesnt deserve this crap, do any of you know anything about these people other than what the sirens chooses to include in the article? Just because he is the one that was hospitalized doesnt mean he is the sole victim in this situation. I am not saying anyone is innocent of making bad decisions or lifestyle choices in this situation so before you go bashing on me for my opinions in this matter or passing judgement on people based on media hype, you have already made yourselves look like condescending insensitive narcissistic individuals with nothing better to do than sit on your high horse with your heads so far in the clouds that you cant see anyone or anything without looking down your nose. People make mistakes they both need help not this kind of hate and discontent from peoe that dont know anything about who these people really are or what they are going thru.
Mr. Man. If the prospect of using three to four syllable words to describe a medical condition sounds bad to you then you can go in the corner with joker where people who treat their brain like a trash basket.
Joker, what in thr hell does that even mean? Sooner or later they were going to have z domestic relationship? Would that be opposed to the forgien relationship that was presumed to be taking place? And you never mention what went both ways. I mean, tou should write a horoscope for a junior highschool gazzette. I understand you need to stop and take a rest break in the middle of a thought and sentence so thaf you can have the energy left to complete the entire thing, but it says you were sad, and you didnt even say what it was.
A “jugular hematoma” a hematoma is a bruise. Why are they making that sound worse?
And King whoever u are, if u read what I posted, I didn’t say they WERE idiots, I said they sound like idiots. What I posted is my opinion, and I beleeve that people have that option to voice theirs? Correct me if I’m wrong. By the way…I usually take the high road, it’s the only way I’ve ever gone. Are u going to judge me for that?
If the shoe fits…
Good job taking the high road, Vada, and not being hypocritical by passing judgement and calling people “a bunch of idiots” or “dumbasses.”
You all sound like a bunch of idiots. Like your opinions count? Hell no they don’t. What counts is that everyone involved gets the needed help they need. Guns weren’t brought into this until some dumbass mentioned them. So instead of judging these people show a little compassion instead. If you can’t say something nice, why say it at all?
Great another case in Lewis County Courts, where there are already 2 deputy prosecutors involved & never more than 1 defense attorney. Court appointed, isn’t a good defense lawyer.
Sad to say it was only a matter of time they had a demestic relationship for a long time it went both ways just sad
And contraire Mon fraire Marty, I still feel the same way about guns as ever, they are great tools that can be used for a lot of good, but as another person mentioned, a gun in this situation would have caused unneeded death.I’d I have to be on constant vigilance to ward of bad guys I’m not paying attention to what life has in store for me. I’m a pro peace guy, not an anti war guy, if you can even grasp the difference.
So does being a hard working republican mean that you count oxycodone pills for rush Limbaugh? Edit shots of Anthony wieners genetalia pics? Pay off Rep. Mark foley’s congressional pages? Or are you just as full of hate for anything different than you as all the others. You are clearly one of those “And all men are created equal except for niggers,women, and Indians” types aren’t you? Proud member of the hooray for me and fuck you party indeed. You are almost as sick as Grace is you waste of skin. At least I can understand Gracies type of problems….. Her I don’t have to forgive, I never condemned her in the first place. If some of you folks wanna pray for someone, my daughter is and has been safe, I made sure of that,and I will live, pray for her and her eldest children.
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Looks like all the mental health funding is working out great. One really has to appreciate the 3 month waiting list. Plenty if funding for the jail though. Theres no waiting list there
“Myself, as a hard working republican i could care less about this trash. ”
Oh, yes, because we all know that only republicans work hard. {rolls eyes}
But one thing that you did prove is the total lack of empathy and compassion that is typical of members of your party.
So, hey! Thanks for reminding me of why I am not a republi-THUG (not that I needed reminding).
I went to school with this woman. She has allot of issues going back to middle school. She isn’t welfar trash she is somebody who slipped through the cracks & needed help long ago! I hope that this gentleman makes it for the sake of the baby and a hospital is the best place for Grace… Now she will get the meds and care she needs!
Myself, as a hard working republican i could care less about this trash. She’s lucky, anyone else would have gave her a meat flap were her head use to be !!! Fkn welfare trash !!! Who really cares about one less drain on society.
The baby was never in danger. She’s 8-1/2 months, not 10 and has been with her “auntie” since January. Her father has been working hard towards getting her back and was trying to get the mom to leave his house, that was what the argument was about. She will be returned to her father if and when he does the work required to prove that he can provide a good home. This will be easier without her mother around. If he does not, she will most likely be adopted by her “auntie”. No need to worry about her. She is healthy, happy, and very loved right where she is.
To BobbyinLC:
My hopes are that that baby will be adopted into a loving home and she will never have to have any contact with either of her worthless parents ever again.
There are also three other little kids who are also victims of the poor choices of their parents.
Wow! And to think I had to spend over an hour with this gal while my kids were locked in the house waiting for law enforcement to arrive! She was at my barn claiming I had her children in Feb.
I want to give kudos to the officer that HOLSTERED his weapon and tasered her instead……we read so many times they shoot and ask questions later….my prayers for all involved that they get the help they need especially the baby
Pipe down, Marty. Guns weren’t even mentioned in the article, so shut it. Not everything is a political agenda.
The real victim is going to be the 1o month old. Poor kid. Wacky parents.
There were more issues in this incident than being able to defend oneself with a gun. Both of these people have mental health issues (as well as some other issues that I won’t post here) and the last thing anyone should have had at hand would have been a firearm. For either of them.
I’m not against guns. But if there’d been guns in that house, somebody would be dead now, perhaps the 10-month-old.
Interesting, an outspoken anti gun person was stabbed and did not have a way to defend himself. Maybe this will change his mind about carrying guns for protection.
Spring fever in Mossyrock. It’s that tulip pollen that brings out the crazy:)