Wife found fit for trial in slaying

Husband stabbed; doctors say mental illness exaggerated

A Little Rock woman accused of stabbing her husband to death was found on Thursday to be fit to stand trial after her lawyers declined to challenge the findings of state doctors who deemed her sane after an extended stay at the State Hospital.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen scheduled Christie Marie Buckner to stand trial in January. Buckner, who turns 44 next Wednesday, is charged with manslaughter over the March 2017 slaying of 55-year-old Earl Buckner Jr. at the couple’s East Eighth Street home. She faces up to 10 years in prison on the Class C felony charge.

Doctors concluded that she had been exaggerating symptoms of mental illness but that she did have disorders of personality.

Earl Buckner was her third husband, and the couple had been married about 19 months when police were called to the home by a woman who told 911 dispatchers that she had just stabbed her husband.

Police arrived to find Earl Buckner and Christie Buckner in their living room. Earl Buckner was lying on the couch bleeding as Christie Buckner stood over him applying pressure to the wound, according to a police report.

She told investigators that they had been arguing and her husband had approached her with a knife so she grabbed a knife and stabbed him.

Earl Buckner died about 90 minutes later after emergency surgery. Christie Buckner was arrested after a friend, Tonya Holley, 54, approached officers at the home and showed them a text-message exchange she had with Christie Buckner over about a two-hour span that night, the last one sent about two minutes before police were called.

The texts said that Christie Buckner expected the police would be arriving at the couple’s home that night because of their arguing and that she would stab Earl Buckner after he stabbed her, according to police reports.

A neighbor, Pamela Johnson, told detectives the couple had an abusive relationship and regularly fought during the four years she had known them.

She said Christie Buckner had texted her that night, beginning about two hours before the stabbing, describing how she and her husband were arguing. Shortly before police were called, Johnson received a text from Christie Buckner saying she was going to stab her husband.