A Fort Washakie man faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly cutting another man’s thumb while threatening to stab his grandmother last week.
Federal authorities charged Michael Quish Posey on Thursday with assault resulting in a serious bodily injury after a domestic incident turned into an alleged stabbing.
Posey lives with his grandmother, sister and sister’s boyfriend in a home in Fort Washakie, according to an evidentiary affidavit by FBI special agent Alesha Knudson, who investigates violent felonies on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
The sister and her boyfriend also have an infant son in the home, the document says.
Posey has schizophrenia, his grandmother testified in the affidavit, and usually takes his required medication and shots, though sometimes he’ll spit his pills out. Posey’s doctor has reportedly warned Posey’s grandmother to keep knives away from him.
The grandmother had known for a while that posey had a knife, but she couldn’t find it because he kept hiding it, the affidavit says.
‘I Am Going To Stab You’
The document claims that around midnight June 19-20, Posey went into his grandmother’s room. She asked for a cigarette, which was “a request he would normally grant,” but this time he said “f*** you.”
The grandmother told police she was surprised and noticed Posey was agitated and holding a knife.
The grandmother said she may call Posey’s uncle to come talk to him.
“I don’t care, I am not afraid of you,” was Posey’s response, according to the affidavit.
The grandmother stood near her dresser.
“I am going to stab you,” Posey allegedly said. “I’ll kill (my uncle).”
Posey pushed his grandmother and she staggered to her bed and sat down, the affidavit says.
Baby First, Knife Second
In another room Posey’s sister’s boyfriend was handing off his infant son to a 14-year-old female relative also staying in the house, the affidavit says. The man then went into the room where Posey was.
The man got between Posey and Posey’s grandmother.
She later told police the man saved her life.
Kid Scissors
The man told police that he rushed into the room when he heard Posey threatening Posey’s grandmother. He tried to take the fixed-blade hunting knife from Posey, said the man, as they struggled for control of the knife.
Posey reached for a pair of scissors and said he’d stab the man in the back, the affidavit relates.
“By the time (the man) realized the scissors were ‘kid scissors’ and did not pose a threat, Posey was able to slash (his) hand, causing a deep laceration to (his) thumb,” the affidavit reads.
Meanwhile, the 14-year-old girl, in another room with the baby, was audio-recording the incident.
Actually, Marijuana
Agents also interviewed Posey, who allegedly said he was angry with his grandmother because she wanted him to stop doing drugs and get his GED so he could get a job.
He believed his grandmother wanted him to give her marijuana that night, and that made him angry, the affidavit says. When he refused to give her marijuana, Posey claimed, she started calling him obscene names repeatedly.
He grew angry and “showed” her his knife, Posey told police.
He said he knows his grandmother thinks he should not have a knife, the affidavit relates, but he’s over 21 years old so he does not care what his grandmother thinks about knives.
Slashed Tendon
The man went to the SageWest Health Care emergency room in Lander where an ER doctor diagnosed him with a severed flexor tendon and an arterial bleed in his right thumb. The slash was about 4 centimeters long; personnel stitched it closed.
The man will need surgery to repair his thumb, and he won’t get to use it for a month at least, the affidavit says.
The doctor opined that the man’s injury would cause a protracted loss or impairment in the body part’s function which, the affidavit notes, satisfies the federal legal definition of a “serious bodily injury.”
Assault resulting in a serious bodily injury is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
