THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 29, 1995 TAG: 9507290320
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Briefs
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
A man charged with stabbing his wife in the back with a 13-inch kitchen knife was convicted of malicious wounding Friday.
Ronald Pugh, 30, of the 900 block of Holladay St., assaulted his wife on March 25, 1994, because he believed she was having an affair. He had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Pugh testified in Circuit Court Friday that the couple had a rocky marriage and that his wife had confessed to infidelity. His wife denied in her testimony that she had been unfaithful.
Pugh admitted leaving his post aboard a Navy ship without permission after arguing with his wife on the telephone. He said that he returned to their Shea Terrace apartment and destroyed furniture, dishes and other belongings in a drunken fit of anger.
When his wife returned home from her job as a construction worker, she found the place in disarray, and the couple argued. Pugh testified that he hit his wife and stabbed her with a knife he had retrieved from the kitchen earlier that day. He also admitted that he used a rope to try to strangle her after the stabbing.
He then drove her to the hospital, where she was treated for about two weeks.
KEYWORDS: VERDICT STABBING CONVICTION MALICIOUS WOUNDING DOMESTIC
DISPUTE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE by CNB