Woman, 48, charged in stabbing death

A 48-year-old Spokane woman who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of second-degree murder told police she stabbed a 62-year-old man to death because he sexually assaulted her.

Jeannette M. May remained in jail Friday night in lieu of $200,000 bail.

Court documents identified the victim as Spokane Valley resident Harold W. Smith, 916 N. Wilbur Road. An autopsy indicated he died from four stab wounds: two in the chest, above his heart, and two in the back.

Spokane police said in an affidavit that they were called to May’s apartment at 139 W. Gray Court about 4:45 p.m. Thursday by her friend, Jeannette Valenzuela.

Officers said Valenzuela told them she took a bus to the apartment when May called her and said frantically, “There is a guy dying on my floor.”

The police affidavit outlines this sequence:

May and Smith had been drinking at the Happy Time Tavern, 3506 N. Division St., where “employees were familiar with May” and had seen her rubbing Smith’s leg and being friendly with him before she paid their tab about 2 p.m.

May told Valenzuela that Smith drove her home, where they drank more beer and Smith tried to rape her. Valenzuela said May told her she killed Smith in self-defense.

Valenzuela told police May was wearing no pants and had red marks on her legs when she arrived at the apartment.

Smith’s fully clothed body was in the bedroom, with his head wrapped in a small quilt and a plastic sack. There was an empty knife sheath next to the body.

May has bipolar disorder and isn’t supposed to drink, according to Valenzuela.

Police said Valenzuela told them May seemed “somewhat in shock” when she arrived. Valenzuela said she tried to calm May, who ordered a pizza and put on her pants.

Valenzuela persuaded May to call police, but May handed the phone to Valenzuela and left the apartment after dialing 911.

Police found a box of partially eaten pizza in the living room of May’s “neatly kept” apartment when they arrived. And they found a notebook with writing that “spoke of rape.”

Officers also found a lot of blood in the bathroom, bloody clothing in the sink, and a large folding knife beneath the quilt wrapping Smith’s head.

Smith’s face was heavily bruised and his eyes were swollen.

About an hour later, police said, they got a call from May telling them she had driven herself to the Jackpot gasoline station at 3501 E. Francis Ave. in “the car of the guy I killed.” Officers said May seemed intoxicated when they drove her to Deaconess Medical Center for a rape examination.

A detective said he saw no red marks on May’s legs at the hospital, nor any other signs that she had been in a struggle.

May declined to be interviewed without a lawyer, but police said she made a number of unsolicited statements in the presence of an officer while doctors examined her. She allegedly said she stabbed the unarmed Smith several times with a knife she kept in a dresser.

Police said May also described kicking Smith “like she was trying to kill him again” while cleaning up blood and wrapping his body.

“I know it sounds sick, but it felt good,” May allegedly said of the homicide. “I feel free … I wish it were my dad.”

According to police, May also said, “Half of me wishes he was still alive and half of me doesn’t. … It’s like I blacked out.”

She reportedly said Smith didn’t threaten her, but he persisted in putting his hands on her and reached down her pants.