A West Virginia woman is accused of stabbing her ex-boyfriend with a “Rambo knife” after becoming enraged when he communicated with other women.
Badia Miller, 51, of Bluefield, Mercer County, is charged with felony malicious assault and misdemeanor domestic battery. She’s pleaded not guilty to both.
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On June 3, a Bluefield Police Department patrol officer responded to a stabbing report at a home in the 1000 block of College Avenue in the city, according to a criminal complaint. Once there, he discovered the victim, John Vineyard, standing in his living room “with a large knife wound below the center of his chest,” according to the complaint.
Vineyard claimed his ex-girlfriend, Miller, stabbed him and then drove away in a Chevy Cruze. He was transported to a nearby hospital, and after being unable to locate Miller, the patrolman returned to Vineyard’s side to ask him additional questions.
According to the complaint, Vineyard claimed the fight started because Miller took his house key and refused to give it back. She was also allegedly “infuriated” that he had texted other women, yelling so loudly Vineyard was concerned his landlord would kick him out.
When he repeatedly asked her to leave, Vineyard claimed she took out a “Rambo knife” and stabbed him near his sternum, “leaving a laceration of about two centimeters deep and four centimeters in length.” The complaint stated that the suspect’s cellphone was left at the crime scene.
Lester discovered another cut beneath the larger one, “from where the knife was pulled out in [a] downward slicing motion.” A Rambo knife appears to be a hunting knife with a long, serrated blade, named in apparent reference to Sylvester Stallone’s popular “Rambo” film series.
The next day, the officer noticed Miller driving on College Avenue, a major thoroughfare through the city of about 9,000 people, and pulled her over. He detained her and discovered a pair of flip-flops under a bag in the trunk, “with what appeared to be fresh blood on the sides of them.” She also allegedly had blood on her dress.
The patrolman also discovered a knife that fit the description Vineyard had given him. According to the complaint, another woman was in the vehicle with Miller when she was detained, and she allegedly had drug paraphernalia and was arrested.
According to the complaint, Miller provided conflicting accounts of what happened with Vineyard, despite the fact that both of them were drinking alcohol. She initially claimed she left before any stabbing occurred, but later remembered that, because Vineyard allegedly “got in her face,” she used the knife for protection, though she did not recall taking it out of the protective cover.
The complaint stated that the sheath found with the knife had a cut in it, implying Vineyard was stabbed with the knife while it was still in its cover.
Miller was jailed on a $10,000 cash surety bond.
