A St. Paul woman is charged with second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of her longtime partner following an alcohol-fueled argument.
Jacquelyn Olivia Vann, 51, faces one count of second-degree unintentional murder for the death of Pierre Scott Glass, 55. Charges against Vann say that she and Glass were dating for around a decade. Vann's son said the couple were heavy drinkers who bickered, but he never saw them act violent towards each other.
But around 7:18 p.m. March 11, St. Paul police were called to a report of a stabbing near the intersection of Marshall and Arundel. That's where officers found Glass on the ground near his pickup truck, bleeding from a stab wound to his chest.
Glass told officers that two men tried to rob him, but his ex-wife said that Glass called her saying otherwise.
"She stabbed me," Glass's ex-wife told officers, recounting Glass words to her in a phone call. "I'm leaving the house ... I'm bleeding."
Medics took Glass to Regions Hospital where he died from his injuries.
A preliminary report from the Ramsey County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide, and investigators believe the stabbing happened at Vann's home more than a half-mile away.
Vann's son said that he exchanged text messages with Glass before he died. In the messages, Glass said that Vann was drunk — cursing at him and slapping him at least one time. Glass's text said that he slapped her back and moved away when she rushed him, causing her to fall. Her son called Glass at around 7:20 p.m. but the call went to his voicemail. His mother told him that she couldn't remember what happened because she and Glass were drinking.
In an interview on the phone with investigators, Vann said that Glass picked her up from work at 5:30 p.m. and took them back to her home on Dayton Avenue. She says Glass left to eat at Subway because he did not like what she was cooking, but he did not return home. She added that she didn't have a physical altercation with Glass and didn't contact him after he left for Subway, but Vann changed her story after police confronted her with text messages between the couple leading up to the time he was stabbed.
Vann then changed her story to say that she and Glass argued before he left the house and she locked the door. Glass, who had a key to the back door, returned and let himself inside. Vann said he pushed her head into the radiator. She grabbed something and swung it at Glass, striking him. She told officers that she did not know she had stabbed him or what she stabbed him with, but started receiving messages at 11 p.m. that Glass was dead.
In a recorded phone call after his death, Glass' brother asked Vann what the two were fighting about and if the fight became physical. Vann told him that she and Glass were tussling before he "banged [her] up on the radiator." She recalls having a rock in her hand and that Glass pushed her down, adding that everything after that was a blur.
"So are you saying that you are a battered woman, and you finally killed your oppressor?" Glass's brother asked Vann, according to the charging documents.
"No, no! No, no, I'm not a battered woman," Vann replied. "We got into it. We got into it, and we NEVER fought like this before."
Vann will appear in the Ramsey County court Wednesday morning for her first hearing. Glass's death marks the sixth homicide in St. Paul this year.
