{"id":12478,"date":"2012-05-22T22:48:31","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T05:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=12478"},"modified":"2012-05-27T14:19:42","modified_gmt":"2012-05-27T21:19:42","slug":"rochester-woman-accused-of-stabbing-mother-convicted-previously-of-knife-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=12478","title":{"rendered":"Rochester woman accused of stabbing mother, convicted previously of knife assault"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday morning wasn’t the first time 23-year-old Amanda Bassell was accused of taking a knife to a family member’s neck.<\/p>\n

\"2012.0520.Amanda.Bassell\"<\/a>

Amanda Lee Bassell<\/p><\/div>\n

While the sheriff’s office said she’d recently been released from prison for felony eluding and then assaulting a prison guard, a closer look at her criminal history shows it was a conviction for such an act that got the Centralia area resident put away less than three years ago.<\/p>\n

Bassell is being held on $500,000 bail in the Thurston County Jail, following her arrest for allegedly stabbing her sleeping mother in the throat at their Rochester home.<\/p>\n

A judge found probable cause to hold her for attempted second-degree murder. Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor Craig Juris said he has until 5 p.m. tomorrow to file the charge.<\/p>\n

Her mother Ruth Daarud, 42, is said to be in stable condition, following surgery on Sunday at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.<\/p>\n

Bassell had accumulated four felony convictions in less than two years – for theft, eluding and one drug charge – before the summer day in 2009 that landed her in prison.<\/p>\n

Court documents give the following account of July 22, 2009:<\/p>\n

Bassell was pulled over about 3:15 a.m. in Centralia because she was driving a car without its headlights turned on.<\/p>\n

She smiled at the officer when he told her to quit trying to restart the car, then popped the clutch, hammered the gas pedal and blew through a stop sign, traveling an estimated 50 mph as she crossed Pear Street.<\/p>\n

The car was found later abandoned at exit 88 off Interstate 5.<\/p>\n

Her uncle later told police she showed up in Rochester and begged him to give her a ride to Centralia so she could cash a check. As they were driving on Harrison Avenue, she saw someone she knew and told him to stop.<\/p>\n

When he didn’t, she became enraged and held what appeared to be a steak knife to his throat, saying “I’m gonna cut you mother f*****.”<\/p>\n

He grabbed her arm, but then she climbed head first from the back seat out the passenger window of a two-door Chevrolet Blazer. It was moving.<\/p>\n

Police at the time said he had a slight cut on his forearm that didn’t need medical attention.<\/p>\n

That evening, Centralia police were called to a home on B Street where they were told Bassell had been hanging around and wouldn’t leave. Officers found her sleeping in a children’s wading pool in the backyard.<\/p>\n

She struggled. By the time she arrived at the jail, in the back of a patrol car, she had freed herself from the handcuff and locked the door.<\/p>\n

Lewis County prosecutors asked psychologists from Western State Hospital to evaluate to determine if she was mentally stable.<\/p>\n

A psychologist noted Bassell’s risk to others was above average but her presentation of a psychiatric disorder was not credible.<\/p>\n

Bassell pleaded guilty in September 2009 to eluding in Lewis County Superior Court. For that, she was sentenced to just over two months.<\/p>\n

She was also convicted of third-degree assault, making a so-called Alford plea, stating she did not remember the facts surrounding the accusation, but agreed the state could provide sufficient evidence of her guilt.<\/p>\n

She was sentenced to 17 months in prison.<\/p>\n

The report from Western State Hospital also offers details of Bassell’s life, some of which were self-reported by the young woman, who was described as “not a reliable historian.”<\/p>\n

Bassell said she got good grades until as a high school student she enrolled in Running Start and began smoking methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

She got married in April 2007. Information from the jail given to the psychologists noted she was associated with the Surenos gang.<\/p>\n

Among her “impairments” listed by mental health specialists were alcohol and drug dependence and personality disorder.<\/p>\n

“The defendant failed to move forward to an adequate adjustment to adulthood,” one of the psychologists wrote.<\/p>\n

While incarcerated, she assaulted a guard, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. Court records show she pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in the summer of 2010.<\/p>\n

She was released from prison on May 11, and was staying at her parent’s Rochester home until Sunday morning.
\n\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

For background, read “Breaking news: Rochester stabbing suspect found hiding in abandoned house” from Sunday May 20, 2012 at 7:55 p.m., here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter Sunday morning wasn’t the first time 23-year-old Amanda Bassell was accused of taking a knife to a family member’s neck. While the sheriff’s office said she’d recently been released from prison for felony eluding and then assaulting a prison guard, a closer look at her criminal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-12478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12478"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12481,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478\/revisions\/12481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}