A 21-year-old St. Louis woman has been charged for allegedly stabbing a cab driver 11 times and then stealing his cab on Tuesday (Feb.) 4 in Imperial, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced today (Feb. 9).
The woman was arrested by St. Louis County Police on Saturday (Feb. 8) during a traffic stop. The Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged her with first-degree assault, a class A felony punishable by 10 to 30 years or life in prison; first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, a class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison; and armed criminal action, an unclassified felony carries a minimum sentence of three years in prison, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
The cab driver, a 48-year-old St. Louis man, was stabbed with a knife that was about 4 to 6 inches long, the probable-cause statement in the case said.
The Sheriff’s Office got a call around 10:40 p.m. Feb. 4 about the attack, and the cab driver was taken to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Surveillance footage shows the woman at the Dierbergs store, 1240 Tesson Ferry Road, in south St. Louis County, not long before she was picked up by the driver, who works for United Cab Co. The Dierbergs store is near Mercy Hospital South, where the woman reportedly got into the cab at about 9 p.m. Feb. 4, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The woman reportedly asked the driver to take her to a location on Windemere Drive in Imperial. She rode in the back seat, and when the cab got to Windemere Drive and Ferris Court, she allegedly stabbed the driver several times, the probable-cause statement said.
The driver was able to get out of the cab and go to a nearby home to call for help. When the driver got out of the cab, the woman got into the driver’s seat and allegedly stole the van, the report said.
The driver suffered serious injuries to his face, hand, chest, shoulder and lower torso, according to the report.
Capt. Gary Higginbotham said a possible motivation for the stabbing was a dispute over the fare, which the woman may not have been able to pay.
The cab, a van, was located on Telegraph Road near Forder Road in south St. Louis County, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Grant Bissell said.