Husband recounts stabbing
She stabbed him first, Alrick Brown said on the day he allegedly killed his wife.
Jurors on Friday listened to a recorded statement Brown gave to a Broward Sheriff’s detective on Feb. 2, 2014, shortly after he called 911 to tell a dispatcher that he “accidentally” stabbed his wife, Dacota Stewart-Dick, 51.
Brown, 40, didn’t call 911 until more than two hours after the fatal confrontation. During that time, he bound Stewart-Dick’s hands with electrical tape and drove to the sheriff’s station in Parkland to report the incident, according to his statement. No one was there at the time, so he drove back home, he said.
Brown, who declined to take the stand Friday, told an investigator that he was upset with his wife because he had seen her the day before in the arms of another man. When he confronted her about it that morning, Stewart-Dick didn’t want to discuss it. Then, he said, he offered to divorce her, grabbing her by her blouse, unaware she had a knife. He said she stabbed him in the abdomen. When Brown knocked the knife away, he said, his wife grabbed another knife and attackedhimagain, cuttinghim in the neck.
Medical experts testified Thursday that thewounds suffered by Brownwere superficial and probably self-inflicted.
But Brown said he fought back, taking the weapon from his wife and stabbing her “three or four times.”
Stewart-Dick begged him to stop, he “What are you doing?” she said.
“What am I doing?” he responded. “You’re the one who stabbed me first. I’m stabbing you back.”
Stewart-Dick was stabbed 23 times and suffered an additional four defensive cuts, according to earlier testimony.
As she lay bleeding, Stewart-Dick tried to get Brown to call for help, complaining that she was getting cold and swearing that she still loved him. “No, you don’t love me,” he said.
Brown’s lawyers, Gabe Ermine and Betsy Benson, are arguing self-defense. Prosecutors Lanie Bandell and Shane Kirk say it was first-degree murder. Brownfaces life in prison if convicted.
Closing arguments before Broward recalled. Circuit Judge Michael Usan are scheduled for Monday morning. Alrick Brown, center, listens to a recording of his 2014 statement to a detective. Defense lawyers Gabe Ermine, left, and Betsy Benson say Brown killed his wife in self-defense.