Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis man stabbed his wife 70 times, police say

Alleged money dispute turned deadly
By Maricella Miranda
mmiranda@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 04/02/2010 11:50:16 PM CDT

A North Minneapolis man faces a first-degree murder charge in connection with allegedly stabbing his wife 70 times during a dispute early Friday.

Police were called to a home in a duplex in the 2400 block of Penn Avenue North, where the couple's two children, ages 13 and 19, told them their father, Billy Nash, 46, had stabbed their mother, identified by the initials P.N., according to a Hennepin County criminal complaint.

One of the children said she awoke at 3 a.m. to hear her mother screaming for help. When she ran into her parents' bedroom, she told police, she saw her father hitting her mother with his fist, the complaint says. The child left to call 911.

Her sister then entered the bedroom and saw her father stabbing her mother, the complaint says. She told her father to stop, grabbed him around the neck, pulled him off her mother and fled the home with the knife.

When police arrived, they saw the victim lying in the bedroom bleeding severely with wounds to her chest and head, the complaint states. She was transported to a hospital but died from her injuries.

Officers said Nash was covered in blood in the apartment, the complaint says. "I'm sorry, sergeant, that you had to come out here tonight for this. ... She was driving me crazy. ... I killed the (expletive)," he told police.

Nash later told investigators he was angry about how his wife spent household money, the complaint says. He grabbed a paring knife during the argument. When the fight

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escalated, he began to repeatedly stab her, he said.
He told officers he used the paring knife and a butcher knife, the complaint says.

Nash was arrested March 23 in connection with a domestic assault call. He was released from jail with a no-contact order but immediately returned to the house in violation of that protection order.

An autopsy of the victim found more than 70 stab wounds, mostly in the chest and head, the Hennepin County medical examiner reported. The victim also had defensive injuries to her arms and hands.

Nash is being held in lieu of $1 million bail with a release order to have no contact with witnesses or his minor children.

He is scheduled to make a first court appearance Monday.

This story contains information from the Associated Press. Maricella Miranda can be reached at 651-228-5421.