CASPER, Wyo. — A 38-year-old Casper woman pleaded no content Tuesday to attacking her boyfriend with a knife last October.
Crystal Lynn Dresser entered the plea in Natrona County District Court on Tuesday.
Assistant District Attorney Blaine Nelson said the state has agreed to seek no more than seven years’ imprisonment for Dresser at sentencing.
Dresser and her public defender, Marty Scott, are free to argue for a lesser sentence.
Dresser remains incarcerated since her arrest in October, and Judge Kerri Johnson declined to modify bond, Nelson said.
The investigation began on the morning of Oct. 14 when a man showed up at the Casper Police Department with blood-soaked clothing and lacerations on his chest and hands, the affidavit said.
After living with Dresser for three weeks, the man said they argued the previous night over text messages his ex-girlfriend had sent him. The man said Dresser retrieved a small aluminum bat that she referred to as “little homie” and struck him on the back, according to the affidavit.
He said Dresser then retrieved a kitchen knife with a square blade and swung it at him in a slashing motion, cutting his ribs and chest area and causing him to bleed profusely. He said he was also cut on the hands and wrists while wrestling the knife away.
The man said he tried to leave but couldn’t find his car keys and believed Dresser may have hidden them, the affidavit said.
The man said Dresser then went upstairs to bed. He called his mother in Utah, who then began driving to help him and arrived about seven hours later. In the meantime, he said he fell asleep on the couch while holding paper towels to his wound. Those towels were later found by investigators in the trash, the affidavit said.
Officers responding to Dresser’s residence that afternoon found that the man’s tires had been slashed, the air still hissing out of them, according to the affidavit.
Officers knocked on the door until Dresser answered, and police said blood could be seen on the door and on the floor of the apartment. A knife was also seen on the landing of the stairs, along with a fresh hole in the drywall. Police believe Dresser was attempting to hide the knife behind the wall.
In an interview with investigators, Dresser reportedly confirmed that she and her boyfriend had been drinking all day and that they’d fought over text messages on his phone, but denied assaulting him and said the blood observed in her apartment may have been from a nosebleed she’d had. She said during the fight she locked herself in her bedroom and didn’t see her boyfriend for the rest of the night.
Police say investigators used bioluminescent light to identify areas where blood had recently been cleaned up, including in the kitchen, living room, and sofa.
Both Dresser and the man told police they had been drinking leading up to the incident.
