A man is dead and his wife faces a first-degree murder charge after his throat was cut in a Little Rock apartment early Friday.
Little Rock police officers got a call before 7 a.m. from Kia Ervin, the daughter of Marilyn Patterson.
Ervin said Patterson called and told her that Kenneth Patterson, Marilyn Patterson’s husband, had tried to commit suicide.
Police and fire crews went to the couple’s Buffington Towers Apartments at 224 E. Seventh St. and found Kenneth Patterson, 61, unresponsive on the bedroom floor with a severe laceration across his neck.
They also saw that Marilyn Patterson, 61, had several cuts on her wrists. She told officers that her husband tried to kill himself, according to a police report.
Department spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen said cuts on Kenneth Patterson were not consistent with self-inflicted knife wounds and that after Marilyn Patterson cut her husband’s throat, she used the knife on herself in what appeared to be a suicide attempt.
Allen said the motive for the cutting was unclear as of Friday afternoon and that none of the neighbors reported hearing a struggle inside the apartment.
Marilyn Patterson was taken to UAMS Medical Center for treatment, according to the report.
She was reported to be in stable condition as of Friday afternoon.
Allen said she will be arrested and charged with first-degree murder after her release from the hospital.
Kenneth Patterson’s death marks the 15th homicide in Little Rock this year.
Arkansas, Pages 17 on 04/19/2014