Stafford man gets two years for stabbing wife

BY KEITH EPPS

The Free Lance-Star

A Stafford County man who stabbed his wife in front of their two small children before turning the knife on himself was ordered Friday to serve two years in prison.

Kendrick Terrell Parker, 36, was sentenced in Stafford Circuit Court to a total of 24 years in prison with 22 years suspended.

He had previously pleaded guilty to attempted murder, aggravated malicious wounding and unlawful wounding in the commission of a felony.

According to the evidence presented by prosecutor Ed Lustig, the domestic altercation erupted the morning of Dec. 14, at the couple’s home on Madison Court in North Stafford.

Parker had come home from work tired and asked his wife, Patricia Parker, to keep the children quiet so he could get some rest.

Lustig said Patricia Parker instead began stomping her feet on the floor, aggravating her husband.

Kendrick Parker later got a knife from the kitchen and went upstairs. Following another verbal altercation, he stabbed his wife in the back, puncturing her lung. Their daughters, ages 2 and 3 at the time, witnessed the incident.

Kendrick Parker then went into the bathroom and stabbed himself twice in the abdomen and once in the right thigh.

His wife managed to call 911. Both were bleeding badly when rescuers arrived.

Patricia Parker initially wanted her husband prosecuted fully, Lustig said, but by Friday had changed her mind.

She told Judge Sarah Deneke that her husband was a good father and a hard worker and said it was in the best interests of the children to be reunited with him as soon as possible.

Patricia Parker also  said that her treatment of him caused him to “just snap.”

Defense attorney Elizabeth Hutson urged Deneke to give Kendrick Parker a sentence below the recommended state sentencing guidelines, which called for a prison term ranging from just over five years to 11 years.

Deneke granted the request, saying she was convinced that Parker’s actions were an “anomaly.”

Keith Epps: 540/374-5404

kepps@freelancestar.com

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