Dewey Austin Barnett, 38, of St. Louis was charged with five felonies after he allegedly entered two High Ridge homes late Monday morning and stabbed a 62-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office reported.
The woman was attacked in a home on Meadowlark Lane and stabbed four times in her throat, the probable-cause statement said.
The man was attacked in a home in the 6100 block of Bush Lane and was stabbed in the face and head, the probable-cause statement said.
Both were transported to an area hospital, and on Monday evening, the woman was in critical and unstable condition, and the man was in critical condition. As of Tuesday morning, however, the woman had been upgraded to critical but stable condition and the man to serious but stable condition, Sgt. Matthew Moore said.
Deputies were called to Meadowlark Lane at 11:32 a.m. in regard to the female stabbing victim. Soon after, they learned about the male stabbing victim, who was at the nearby address on Bush Lane.
Barnett was apprehended in the area, Capt. Gary Higginbotham said.
Barnett allegedly told authorities he entered the home on Meadowlark Lane and stabbed the woman. The male stabbing victim told authorities Barnett entered his house on Bush Lane through a window, the probable-cause statements said.
Higginbotham and Moore said authorities did not know what led to the stabbings or the nature of the relationship between the three people.
However, Higginbotham said the Sheriff’s Office does not believe the three people are related, although interviews with the victims had not been possible as of Monday night.
“We know it’s not domestic-related where they’re related by blood,” Higginbotham said. “We don’t have a clear motive in it. We are still waiting to talk to the victims. There were still being worked on at the hospital. We haven’t been able to get their full side of the story.”
The Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Barnett on Monday with two counts of first-degree assault, a class A felony; two counts of armed criminal action, an unclassified felony; and one count of first-degree burglary, a class B felony, court records said.
Each of the assault charges is punishable by 10 to 30 years or life in prison. Each of the armed criminal action charges is punishable by a minimum of three years in prion, and the burglary charge carries a punishment of five to 15 years in prison.
Barnett was being held Tuesday morning in the Jefferson County Jail on a $150,000 cash-only bond, Moore said.