BELLINGHAM - A Bellingham couple has been sentenced in a kidnapping that ended with a woman being stabbed in the neck at a homeless camp near Fraser Street.
Amanda Jean Mitchell, 25, must serve three years in prison for stabbing the 42-year-old woman in May. Her boyfriend at the time, Alvin Lynn McKee, 41, was sentenced to a year and two months behind bars for kidnapping.
According to an affidavit filed by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney James T. Hulbert:
A witness reported seeing McKee and Mitchell run across the street near the Aloha Motel the late afternoon of May 17. They punched and knocked down a man in his early 20s, then ordered him at knifepoint to come with them to a homeless camp across town.
As they walked together, the couple accused the man and another woman of "snitching" on them. The victim managed to make a phone call to the woman.
She rendezvoused with them at the camp near Lincoln and Fraser streets. The couple stole a three-ring binder, some drawing supplies, a cell phone and everything in the man's pockets.
Then McKee said the kidnapped man could leave with the woman. That enraged Mitchell, who accused him of siding with the "snitches." She swung her knife at McKee but missed. He ran away.
Mitchell "went crazy" and stabbed the woman in the neck and arm. The man tackled her to stop the attack and Mitchell scampered off into the woods.
The man wrapped his shirt around the victim's wounds and walked her to Fraser Street, where they flagged down a patrol car passing by.
They described the suspect as a young woman with short red hair. She wore a flowery dress, stained by the woman's blood.
Mitchell was found minutes later hiding behind a fence at a house in the 1500 block of Lincoln Street. McKee was tracked down the next day. He'd hidden a knife in his boot.
McKee and Mitchell were sentenced in September. They must cover a $2,800 hospital bill for the stabbed woman, and Mitchell is required to undergo mental health treatment.
Reach CALEB HUTTON at caleb.hutton@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2276.
