BELFAST, Maine — When prosecutors pressed Victoria Scott on the details of what led up to her stabbing a Belmont man repeatedly in the leg, her face reddened, her answers reached a frantic pace and her frustration grew. She broke into tears repeatedly while trying to recall that night’s events.
Scott says Edwin Littlefield attacked her in the driveway of a mutual friend’s home in Waldo, and that she feared for her life when she took out her knife and stabbed him in the leg. Prosecutors and police have said holes and inconsistencies in her story led them to believe that she provoked the attack that resulted in his death.
[Medical examiner: Stabbing victim’s life could have been saved]
Scott took the stand Thursday, one of just four witnesses called by the defense team on the fourth day of her manslaughter trial. She’s also the only living person who saw what happened between her and Littlefield in the driveway on the evening of Feb. 8, 2017.
“Did you really believe he was going to kill you?” Scott’s attorney, Steven Peterson, asked.
“He was!” she said. “He was going to kill me.”
Scott, now 25, was 23 at the time of the stabbing. She was staying at Rose Newton’s home in Waldo that week. Scott formerly dated Newton’s son, and stayed close friends with her after their breakup.
Josh Dorman, another friend of Newton’s son, also was staying at the home. Both occasionally stayed with her to help around the house, because Newton was going through chemotherapy treatments at the time.
Littlefield, another friend who sometimes stayed at Newton’s house and helped with chores, walked to the house the evening of Feb. 8.
Littlefield was upset that Scott and Dorman were there, and believed they were “using” Newton, according to those who were in the house. Scott and Dorman were in a bedroom with the door closed.
[Prosecutors in stabbing trial use police accounts to try to cast doubts on suspect’s story]
Scott first told police that she didn’t hear any words Littlefield said, only that he sounded upset. She claimed she went outside to smoke, saw him in the driveway and went to ask him what was wrong because she was concerned about him.
In later interviews, she said she thought she heard a few words he said, including insults, and approached him saying something closer to, “What the hell is wrong with you?”
She said Littlefield turned on her, cursed at her and said she was the problem. She said he grabbed her and pushed her to the ground. Scott said her head hit the bed of a pickup truck and she got up quickly to confront him about why he’d laid his hands on her. She claims she “touched him on the elbow” to get him to stop and answer the question, which “set him off again.”
Scott claims Littlefield grabbed her by the wrist, dragged her down the driveway into the dark, struck her, knocked her glasses off, pushed her down, straddled her, continued striking her and tried to strangle her.
She said she can’t recall when she pulled the knife out of her pocket, but said she flipped up the blade and used it after he said, “I’m going to kill you, you [expletive expletive].”
Scott said she believed she stabbed him “at most five times” in the thigh and calf. In fact, Littlefield suffered 11 knife wounds, mostly to the left leg, but also to his scalp and abdomen. The stabbing severed two major arteries, and Littlefield bled out.
During the struggle for the knife, Scott said Littlefield tried to stab her in the face or throat and that she was able to “redirect” the knife to the side to protect herself. During that scuffle, she said the knife cut her thigh. Prosecutors believe she may have stabbed herself.
Prosecutors believe Scott pursued Littlefield down the driveway, confronting him and prolonging the dispute while Littlefield was trying to leave, and ultimately escalating the argument into a full-blown fight.
They point to changes in details of her story and evidence that doesn’t match up with her original statements.
Doctors and EMTs who examined Scott said they couldn’t find any evidence of injuries — no bruises, swelling, scrapes or lumps. Police said no signs of injury appeared in the following days of interviews.
Scott said she’d been drinking Mountain Dew and vodka that night, but was never intoxicated.
More than two hours after the fight, her blood alcohol level was a 0.126, well above the legal limit of 0.08. She had accused Littlefield of being “belligerently drunk” when he came to the house. His blood tests revealed a 0.098 blood alcohol level.
Both sides will deliver closing arguments on Friday morning. Then, the jury will start deliberations to determine whether Scott should be found guilty of manslaughter.
If convicted, Scott faces up to 30 years in prison.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.
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