Benton, LA: Benton man killed. Common law wife charged with murder

Posted: May 01, 2010 10:05 PM EDT
Updated: May 01, 2010 10:13 PM EDT


What started as a verbal altercation between a Benton, Louisiana man and his common law wife turned deadly after the argument became physical. Benton Police were dispatched around 1:29 am on Saturday morning to 117 2nd Street in Benton. When police arrived, they found a man passed out on the floor with a stab wound to his chest and a female on top of him giving him CPR.

Tony Brown, 50, the stabbing victim was alive at first and was taken by ambulance to LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, but he later died. According to police, Brown died of a stab wound to his heart.

The female, Deborah Hamilton, 51, was not cooperative in the investigation. Police say that she was heavily intoxicated and gave different statements. She was arrested and booked on charges of second degree murder.

Police are not saying what the cause of the argument was. But according to Benton's Assistant Chief of Police Jene Hillen, that was not the first time the police were dispatched to that location for a domestic dispute.