AUGUSTA — A second Waterville woman pleaded guilty to elevated aggravated assault in the stabbing of a woman last November on a dirt road in a rural area of China.

Tiffany Danielle Glidden, 20, was essentially an accomplice in the attack on Kathryn L. Hopkins, which occurred Nov. 4, said the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh, at Wednesday’s hearing in the Kennebec County Superior Court case.

Cavanaugh said Glidden and her co-defendant, Carrisa Butkewicz, 23, who also lived in Waterville, arranged to meet Hopkins in a remote area to buy drugs from her and planned to take her drugs or money.

Butkewicz pleaded guilty to that same charge on Tuesday, also in the Capital Judicial Center, and was ordered to begin serving an initial seven-year period of imprisonment. The remainder of her 15-year term was suspended.

Glidden’s case was continued for sentencing.

Cavanaugh said he and Glidden’s defense attorney, Darrick Banda, jointly recommend an underlying sentence of 15 years with four years’ probation. However, they disagree on the initial period of incarceration, which they capped at five years.

“Mr. Banda and Ms. Glidden are free to argue for less in the unsuspended portion,” Cavanaugh told Justice Robert Mullen, who accepted her guilty plea.

Cavanaugh said Glidden smashed Hopkins’ windshield with a baseball bat or similar stick as Hopkins tried to drive off after being stabbed in the abdomen by Butkewicz. Cavanaugh said initially Hopkins did not realize Glidden was there and thought Butkewicz had broken the windshield.

Hopkins pulled out the kitchen knife and was bleeding profusely when she pulled onto a nearby paved road and was found almost immediately by a former Army medic and a passing emergency medical technician.

Cavanaugh told the judge that Glidden and Butkewicz got a ride back to Waterville almost immediately after the incident and passed Hopkins’ car in a driveway.

Police went to Glidden’s mother’s house that night looking for her, and she jumped out a window to avoid them, Cavanaugh said. However, she came to the Waterville Police Department the next day.

“She met with a detective in Waterville and ultimately acknowledged she broke the window with the bat and planned to get drugs or money,” Cavanaugh said.

That interview with police was the subject of a March 26 suppression hearing at which Cavanaugh said Glidden spent six hours talking with detectives and even went back to the scene of the crime with them.

Banda said Glidden asked for an attorney, and questioning should have been stopped at that point. A videotape of the interview showed Glidden wearing a pink sweatshirt as she spoke to detectives.

At that hearing, Glidden testified she said, “I want my lawyer. What do I do?” The prosecutor said Glidden told police, “If I want my lawyer, what do I do?” It was unclear from the audio precisely what she said. Eventually the judge refused to suppress the interview.

When the judge asked Glidden if she had any explanation for what happened, Banda told him that she would speak at the sentencing hearing.

In the meantime, the judge ordered Glidden held without bail. She was unable to post bail previously.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams

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