AUGUSTA — A Waterville woman originally charged with aggravated attempted murder for stabbing a woman in the abdomen pleaded guilty Tuesday to a lesser charge and was ordered to begin serving an initial seven-year period of imprisonment. The remainder of the 15-year term was suspended.

Carrisa Butkewicz, 23, who now uses a post office box in Liberty as an address, was sentenced in the Kennebec County Superior Court case at a hearing in the Capital Judicial Center. She was also ordered to pay $300 restitution.

Butkewicz was indicted on charges of aggravated attempted murder, criminal attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault for the Nov. 4, 2014, attack on Kathryn L. Hopkins in China.

As a result of plea negotiations, the other charges were dismissed in exchange for Butkewicz’s plea to the one charge and the agreed-upon sentence, which includes four years of probation.

Hopkins, who underwent surgery to repair the knife wound that punctured her intestines, wrote to the judge asking for a 10-year period of initial incarceration for Butkewicz and at least five years for co-defendant Tiffany Glidden, 20, of Waterville.

“This was clearly premeditated act with no concern for my life or most importantly the welfare of my two-year-old daughter Brooklyn,” Hopkins wrote. She said she and the two defendants had been friends.

She talked about her fear and panic and of pulling the knife out of her stomach.

“It is nothing short of a miracle granted by God that I survived that night.” She went on to say, “As far as I can tell, they had been planning on murdering me for at least five hours by the time I arrived around 6:30 in the evening. They were wearing gloves, they brought the knife, Carissa (sic)was giggling one minute and then stabbed me the next.”

Hopkins said she spent weeks recovering and lost her home and her job and had to depend on family for aid. She said she worries that things will never be the same.

Defense attorney Brad Grant said, “It was clear (Butkewicz) was apologetic and remorseful for what had happened. She was in tears in the courtroom.”

Charges against Glidden remain pending.

State police, who investigated the incident, said it was a drug deal gone bad, and a sentencing memo by Grant confirmed it.

In the document filed with the court, Grant said the plan called for Hopkins to drive to the China site to sell Percocet to Butkewicz.

Grant said Butkewicz believed Hopkins would be armed, so Butkewicz brought a knife and Glidden a bat to the meeting site, Fire Road 17.

Grant’s memo says Hopkins told emergency medical personnel and investigators that she crushed a Percocet and ingested it with water.

“What is clear is that Ms. Hopkins stated that when Ms. Butkewicz got in the car she searched for money,” Grant said. “The next thing Ms. Hopkins recalled was that Ms. Butkewicz reached out and punched her in the abdomen. Chaos occurred next as the window to Ms. Hopkins car was struck (with a baseball bat wielded by Glidden).”

Hopkins realized she had been stabbed and drove off to seek aid at a nearby house, where a passing emergency medical technician and the homeowner found her as she collapsed.

She told police Butkewicz stabbed her, and a kitchen knife was found on the car’s front seat.

Investigators also found a baseball bat and a machete in the trunk of Hopkins’ car.

Police were told that Butkewicz and Glidden were hiding at a home on Neck Road and that they both had warrants for their arrest.

They interviewed a third woman there who told them she drove the pair to Waterville and that Butkewicz told her “some girl attacked me and I attacked her back,” according to Grant’s memo. Butkewicz indicated she had seriously harmed the woman.

Butkewicz was on probation for unlawful trafficking at the time of the stabbing, and part of the new sentence includes a full revocation of three years and eight months remaining in the suspended portion of that sentence. Grant’s memo says Butkewicz “has been unable to deal with her substance abuse and addiction.”

In a separate hearing also on Tuesday, Eugene R.Charleston, 21, of New York and Wiscasset, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $400 after pleading guilty to three counts of violating conditions of release and one count each of escape — during which he forded the Kennebec River — operating a vehicle without a license, aggravated forgery, theft by receiving stolen property and unlawful trafficking in heroin, all between July 2014 and April 2015 in Augusta.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams

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