A Washington County judge has suspended the attempted murder case against an Elm Springs woman accused of stabbing her snoring husband, saying she may be mentally unfit to stand trial.
An order signed by Judge William Storey on Thursday states, “this court finds reasonable suspicion to believe that the defendant may not be fit to proceed. Storey goes on to order a mental evaluation for Dawn Marie Weiser, 44.
Weiser was scheduled to stand trial on an attempted murder charge March 17 after being arrested last Aug. 29. The start of her trial has been delayed once before, in December, according to court records.
Weiser pleaded not guilty Oct. 2 to a felony charge of attempted murder. A preliminary report from the prosecutor states Weiser stabbed her husband in August after an argument about his snoring. The stabbing sent Doug Weiser, 43, to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said he suffered a punctured spleen and lacerated liver from three stab wounds.
Doug Weiser told police he awoke to his wife stabbing him with a knife. He was able to wrestle the knife from her before the couple’s two teenage sons came to his aid, according to a preliminary report from the Washington County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The victim told police he and his wife had recently argued about his snoring, and she went to another room with one of their to sleep while he slept alone in the couple’s bed, the report states.
Dawn Weiser told police she awoke to a loud noise in the house and found her husband with stab wounds. She told investigators she believed there must have been an intruder inside the home, according to the preliminary report.
She later admitted to stabbing her husband with a butcher knife and hiding the evidence, police said.
She was released from the Washington County Detention Center two days after her arrest, on a $25,000 bond.
Doug Weiser filed for divorce from his wife on Sept. 5 in Washington County Circuit Court, records show.
