A Wyoming woman whose teenage son allegedly stabbed her in the back while she slept is raffling off his pigs to pay down her medical costs.
Karla Smith and her son Tharles Smith, who turns 18 in October, were quarreling the night of June 10 about the family’s wish to move him into another home, Karla told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
The teen was charged as an adult last month on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, which is punishable by life in prison.
Tharles had not been following the house rules, court documents relate from other interviews.
That night, Tharles waited until everyone in the home went to sleep, retrieved a knife with an 8-inch blade from a magnetic holder, went into his mother’s room, leapt on her and stabbed her in her upper left back, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed in his case.
“Why did you punch me?” Karla recalled asking as she woke. She told Cowboy State Daily that at first, she believed her son had punched her.
“No, you actually have a knife in your back,” Tharles reportedly answered. “I stabbed you.”
Family Shaken
Campbell County Sheriff’s personnel arrived and detained Tharles.
Karla was flown to Campbell County Health in Gillette, Wyoming, with the knife still protruding from her back, she recalled.
The attack and police response traumatized her 19-year-old daughter, who has autism, Karla said. The teen awoke to police shining flashlights while a knife was still jutting from her mother’s back.
At the hospital, doctors wondered if they’d have to perform surgery to remove the knife.
But Campbell County Health surgeon Jake Rinker was able to pull it out, Karla recalled.
It had plunged through her scapula, broken two ribs and punctured her lung, she said. Karla said a portion of the blanket that had been covering her went in with it, so doctors had to cut the fabric out.
Rinker told police that the blade went two-thirds of the way through Karla’s chest cavity.
Her lung collapsed and medical personnel inserted a tube to reopen it. She spent two-and-a-half days in the intensive care unit and four days altogether in the hospital, she said.
She had six stitches removed a week ago and is facing a potential four to six weeks in a restrictive shoulder brace. She will soon be evaluated on whether her shoulder needs surgery.
Doctors are watching to see if her shoulder muscle reattaches where it should, she said.
“It’s a lot of pain, throbbing and the burning sensation that goes on with the nerves and the muscle,” Karla added.
Price To Fly
Karla said her insurance company just told the family it isn’t going to cover her air ambulance, which she said cost $67,000.
That doesn’t include the deductible the family has to meet on the other medical bills, and the expense of Karla’s husband Andrew being on unpaid family leave after he used all his paid leave, she said.
Well-meaning people tried to organize a GoFundMe campaign or a meal train for the Smiths, but Karla said she didn’t like those ideas. They seemed too burdensome for others.
So she called up the county fair in Sheridan, where her other children were still scheduled to show and auction off their market pigs.
She asked if the two girls could show and auction Tharles’ pigs as well, but the fair told her that wouldn’t work, Karla said.
The family instead decided to raffle off the pigs.
Ginger Rose Eslinger, a longtime friend of Karla’s, arranged the raffle. Tickets are $20 each, and as of Wednesday, she hadn’t sold any, Eslinger told Cowboy State Daily.
The first- and second-place raffle winners will receive half a hog each; butchered, cut and wrapped. Third- and fourth-place winners will receive a quarter hog each, cut and wrapped.
As for the other half of the second pig, Karla said she’s giving that to Eslinger for her efforts to organize the raffle.
Big Horn Meats in Buffalo, Wyoming, is processing the meat, Eslinger said.
The raffle drawing is July 28. Eslinger said people can reach her at virginiaeslinger@gmail.com.
The Wounds They Can’t See
Karla said she can’t function well right now.
She can use her right arm, though her left is bound in a restrictive brace in the hopes that her shoulder will heal correctly.
Her husband and daughters have “really picked up the slack,” she said. She has doctors appointments nearly every week.
The mental wounds have been just as painful, Karla said.
“One of the hardest things to go through (is knowing that), if it makes my son so mad, (with us) trying to get him into a place, imagine trying to sit on a stand and testify against him,” she said. “I’m worried sick he’s going to try to get out and come back for revenge.”
But, Smith added, she’ll have much to say at the case’s conclusion about the need for mental health services in Wyoming.
While Waiting For Deputies
The night of the alleged attack June 10, Karla called 911 once she realized she’d been stabbed.
Tharles wanted to leave her room because he did not want to watch his mother die, he told law enforcement, court documents relate. But Karla said she convinced him to stay there until authorities arrived.
It took only 45 minutes, but it felt like forever, she said.
She was “very lucky” to have been stabbed in that manner and location, Rinker told a Campbell County Sheriff’s investigator at the emergency room, according to the court affidavit.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
