Brian Slater took a “selfie” after he got out of the hospital.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The 26-year-old woman being held after her boyfriend was stabbed in the neck in Mossyrock returned to court today, but still has not been arraigned.
Grace E. Barker is charged with first-degree assault but concern about her mental stability has interrupted the usual process for defendants.
At a hearing last week in Lewis County Superior Court scheduled for her arraignment, her court appointed lawyer asked instead for a one week postponement.
Grace E. Barker
Centralia attorney Shane O’Rourke told the judge he’d like to wait.
“The competency question is borderline, as far as I can tell in talking with her family,” O’Rourke said.
Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead didn’t object.
Barker attended the hearing, which is more than she did the first afternoon she was supposed to go before a judge. On April 7, temporary defense attorney Joely O’Rourke said she and others tried to speak with Barker at the jail, but Barker was uncommunicative.
The following day, corrections officers used a restraint chair to bring her into the courtroom. Her bail was set at $500,000.
Barker was arrested on April 6, after law enforcement was called to her boyfriend’s home on Mossyrock Road West.
Prosecutors wrote in court documents that Brian Slater was trying to get her to leave his residence when she picked up a knife, and he armed himself with a knife and when he threw his down thinking she had done the same, she stabbed him in the throat.
He told deputies she had been acting unstable.
Slater, 36, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical condition.
He suffered a punctured and collapsed lung and a “jugular hematoma”.
The Mossyrock man is home now and, he said late last week, in a great deal of pain.
“It’s really a grizzly wound, but it’s all from the doctor that saved my life,” Slater said of his healing scar. “That’s what the doctor had to do to repair the damage.”
The knife, he said, was an approximately 10-inch long stiletto, a collector-type item of his.
He was anxious to hear what happened in court, with the mother of his baby. Slater was especially pleased lawyers and the judge have been talking about sending Barker to a mental hospital.
She doesn’t belong in a jail cell, as far as he’s concerned.
“That doesn’t mean she needs to be let go and go home,” Slater said.
Slater doesn’t make any mentions of feeling anger, just concern that Barker gets help. He’s 100 percent supportive of her, he said.
“She’s an incredibly intelligent person with an unbelievable amount of challenges,” he said. “And she’s dealt with it with grace.”
He’s not sure what day he got home from the hospital, and much about his stay there is fuzzy. He said he recalled one visitor, but learned later as many as eight people had been there, and were told he might not make it.
His sister who lives in California and created a Go-Fund-Me page for her brother says he got release three days after the attack. She created the donation page in hopes of helping Slater replace tools and other valuables that were missing when he returned home. He said he arrived to find his door wide open.
Barker this afternoon went before Judge Richard Brosey for the third time.
O’Rourke told the judge he thought she should be seen by experts from Western State Hospital to determine if she’s competent.
Individuals must be competent enough to understand their court proceedings and must be competent enough to effectively assist their lawyer in their defense.
O’Rourke said he’s not the professional who can decide that, so it’s just prudent to have it done.
“With all the references to behaving in ways that don’t make sense, it makes sense to have her evaluated by Western State,” he said.
The court scheduled a review hearing for May 11.
•••
For background, read “Mossyrock argument: Two knives, one airlifted, other arrested” from Thursday April 7, 2016, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Engaged.
Yeah, your a real upstanding citizen aren’t you Karla??? Last I checked upstanding citizens don’t have warrants out for lying to the cops!!!!!!
Oops. That one got away before I was done:
..her stabbing him in the thigh with a scissors and being arrested for felony assault. It turned out to be a case of self defense but it took a good but expensive lawyer and many trips to the courtroom to get the charges dropped.
Unfortunately some people are so immature and angry that they cannot express themselves rationally but have to use vulgarity and personal attacks and express their prejudices against certain segments of society or races or the police or whoever.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
Usually that anger springs from the frustrations in their own life, their own shortcomings, their regrets, their bad experiences with the police or courts, or they see past behavior or situations of their own in the person they are criticizing.
Bottom line is that these people are totally ineffective, never make things better with their approach to life, and are usually very unhappy people. Perhaps they don’t care that their mode of dealing with life doesn’t bear any positive fruit as long as they can feel better about themselves by spewing their venom.
Many times the perpetrator looks like a very bad person and the victim as totally innocent in situations like this stabbing, but there is another side to the story. I had some young friends whose relationship ended one day with her stabbing him in the thigh with a siccers
@BobbyinLC No need to worry about the children, they are in good places and will continue to be.@BoRupert While some of your methods and motives I question, i agree with most of the things you post and am glad to see that in this situation we stand in agreement as well. @crazyoldman yep, spot on. Reached a breaking point and snapped. However there seems to be some unsaid presumption of yours that may br way off base, but not knowing the story it wouldn’t seem to be far off for you to see things thag way. @Moderator. Its always fun to see the wackadoodles come out if you can permit it even though the opinions expressed couldn’t be further from my feelings, I also DID bring up xenophobes a few comments below his, and this sort of speach is the reason I jokingly placed it in what I said anyway.
Note to readers: Some of you may wonder why the administrator of this news site (me) would approve a comment like this, (below). Many news organizations would not. It contains bigotry and hatefulness in the extreme, which is a reoccurring theme from this reader, sometimes / often only loosely related to the topic at hand. FYI, it’s milder than many comments of his that I could not bring myself to approve for posting. There’s two reasons why I allow this sort of comment. First, if I simply censored these types of comments, many of us would not know that there are individuals who live in our community who have these kinds of thoughts and opinions. They are real. They are here among us. And I think it’s better to know, than not to know. Secondly, what I’ve come to realize is racism, sexism and other ism’s fall onto a spectrum. On one end, it’s clear as can be and 99% of people would label them as such. However, at the other end of the spectrum, a person’s opinion is a person’s opinion and I as a journalist want to do everything I can possibly do, to avoid debating someone about their opinion. Because that’s not my job. I’m a question asker, a listener and a writer. This two-way, interactive news publishing that the commenting function brings is relatively new and has challenges that tax my brain. But, I am committed to the principle of “giving voice to the voiceless.” And I sincerely believe, that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. (And that with a lower case “d”, not a big “D” 😉 — News reporter, Sharyn Decker
She fkn tried to kill a fellow citizen, she is a attempted murderer, PRISON is were her lil welfare ass belongs. Who gives two shits about a little scum bag, give her the max !!! Crazy ass people in this county. This place was a nice town before we let every fat , lazy, mental unstable piece of crap and illegal trash in.. THANKS TO ALL OUR So CALLED police , that only enforce the law they choose , illegal alien, means they have broken the law , the second that there ignorant little feet hit America!! Do I get a free pass on breaking laws fk no, sick of all the lazy ass people in this town , and its worthless police, DO THE JOB THAT YOU Are HIRED To DO!;!!
I agree jail is not appropriate for this woman. A place where she can get the help that she needs is
I worry about the children of these two.
THanks karla, and you are spot on actually. I have worked long and hard to avoid being the type of person thst otherd reffer to as an upstanding citizen. As i now live in Lewis County i think that is true even more so than ever. Here is a list of some of my lesser quilities lewid county edition.
1.I like, talk to, associate with, and support “colored people”
2.I openly ridicule xenophobes.
3.I have a criminal history. (Unfortunally nothing involving drugs, theft,sex crimes,or violence.)
4.I believe in equilty for all. E.g. women reading and doing things outside of thd kitchen or bedroom.
5. I have never once voted republican and never will.
6. I use foul language like children use ketchup on french fries.
7. Although having worked for over a decade i now collect disablity retirement as a majority of my income for (see next)
8. I have had multiple numbers in the DSM 5 associated with me. Mental health).
9. I am rude to people frequently and sometimes seemlingly without cause I am told.
10. I support my brothers and sisters in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community . So i like “fags” to.
11.I am not Christian, nor do I affiliate myself with any organinzed religion or cult. I am a reslist and I understnd the difference between intelligent design and fairy tails. Fairy tales are fun to read to kids and teach hem a great deal of wonderful things but i dont talk to them.
12. While number 12 is true, i support anyone and every one to celebrate any religion they want yo if it doesn’t adversely affect others.
This is just a short list but it should help in part i hope in putting you at ease when doubting yourself when it comes to judgment calls on people’s character.
Usually there is some big hurt in childhood which doesn’t heal that causes people like her to go down a bumpy road for life. My guess is that she didn’t stab this guy out of the blue, but reached a breaking point and snapped.
I’ve tried to help people with similar life problems with a lot of failure and a bit of success here and there. Most are too afraid to let go of their demons and don’t believe that they can have a normal life if they consistently work at it. This is the ultimate act of self sabotage.
I went to school with Grace, she was very smart and kind up until or freshman year, then she seemed to have slipped into a different world. One she didn’t like. We were friends for at least 3 years before 9th grade, then we were both kicked out of school just before homecoming when she threw a punch at me over a boy and I defended myself. I moved shortly after & didn’t see her again until her picture appeared in the cronical! I often wondered what happened to the girl who was once one of my best friends… guess the world hasn’t been that great for her. So sad!
“She’s an incredibly intelligent person with an unbelievable amount of challenges,” he said. “And she’s dealt with it with grace.”
You’re being a lot more compassionate than I would in the same situation, Brian. Kudos for that, but we view “grace” differently, I guess. Good luck to you.
Justice will be served for the six plus vicitms here when she has been seen by and started treatment from the professionals that she has so desperatly needed and she deserves. Nobody deserves to go through the hell that all of them have gone through.
I totally don’t think this fella deserved to be stabbed.. But, I’m betting he’s not necessarily the most upstanding citizen.,, I could be wrong…