Janyra Frazier, 19, on Thursday declined a plea offer from prosecutors, saying she first wanted time to discuss the proposed deal with her parents.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A change-of-plea hearing Thursday in Allen County Common Pleas Court for a 19-year-old Lima woman charged with stabbing her ex-girlfriend hit a snag when the defendant balked at a proposed resolution to her case.
Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Josh Carp placed on the official record a plea offer that called for Janyra Frazier to plead guilty to a single count of felonious assault, a felony of the second degree. In exchange, the state would dismiss a second felonious assault charge and would not make any sentencing recommendation.
Frazier told Judge Jeffrey Reed she would like the opportunity to discuss the proposal with her parents and will have to weekend to hold those discussions before returning to court on Monday, at which time the offer expires. A Jan. 23 trial date has been scheduled.
According to court documents, Lima police responded to Memorial Health System on July 22 in reference to a stabbing. Reports indicate the female victim had been stabbed three times in the back with a kitchen steak knife during an altercation on East Fourth Street and had suffered a punctured lung and other injuries.
Frazier, who was identified as the attacker, fled from the scene and was not taken into custody until Sept. 15.
Defense attorney Steve Chamberlain from the Allen County Public Defenders Office in October filed a motion with the court seeking to have “any and all alleged oral statements made by the defendant” following her arrest be barred from evidence at trial. Chamberlain said Frazier’s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution had been violated when Lima police Detective Matt Woodworth conducted three separate jailhouse interviews with the woman.
Reed overruled the motion.
