Brownsville woman testifies she stabbed her boyfriend in self-defense
A Brownsville woman accused of fatally stabbing her boyfriend testified in Fayette County Court that he beat her repeatedly throughout their five-year relationship and that she was in fear for her life the night she stabbed him.
Dayna McMaster, 37, took the stand in her own defense in her murder retrial on Wednesday to describe her relationship with 47-year-old Clarence Blair III, who was stabbed in the heart at a remote location near a gas well in Redstone Township on June 26, 2009.
When McMaster’s court-appointed attorney, Dianne Zerega, asked her to characterize the relationship, her voice began to waver as she replied, “We got along so good. He made me laugh.”
McMaster testified that she and Blair had ups and downs, and there were numerous instances of abuse over the years, resulting in bruises, black eyes, bloodied lips, a broken nose and her front teeth being knocked out.
Prior to June 2009, McMaster testified she had been separated from Blair for eight months while she was a patient at a methadone clinic. She told the jury that she and Blair both abused drugs and had both been clean until the date of the incident, when they relapsed into crack use.
After smoking crack at the location near the gas well, McMaster testified, Blair took her to Walmart. She told the jury she used her grandmother’s debit card without permission to buy clothes, as well as cell phones and calling cards for her and her daughter. Later, McMaster said she and Blair went back to Walmart to buy a videogame console, for the purpose of trading it for more crack. She testified that she tried to shoplift games for the system, but security spotted her and called police.
Blair picked her up from the state police station in Uniontown later, McMaster testified, and that’s when she learned that he had sold the cellphones for crack. She said that made her angry, because the phone was for her daughter.
“I said, ‘How would your kids feel if you did that? Go sell your kids’ f–ing s-t!’ and that’s when he backhanded me,” McMaster told the jury.
The argument continued and escalated, she testified, with Blair striking her repeatedly in the head. The passenger in the vehicle, Thomas McGee, at some point asked to be returned to his home in Cardale. According to McMaster, Blair threatened her with a knife before they got to Cardale.
She said she was fearful Blair was planning to kill her after McGee went home and she and Blair were alone, so she hid the knife Blair used to threaten her under her leg while Blair ran inside the house where he was staying for a few minutes.
When Blair came back out to the truck, he headed toward the gas well again, McMaster testified, and on the way, she opened the knife case if she needed to defend herself.
At the gas well, McMaster said, Blair got out of the driver’s side and came around to the passenger’s side to open her door and continue hitting her. She testified that he was choking her, and she reached under her leg, pulled out the knife and “poked” him.
“He threw me on the ground and started choking me again,” McMaster testified. Moments later, he told her he thought he needed to go to the hospital, she said. That was when she said she realized she had not just injured his shoulder, that it was probably more serious.
Zerega said, “In your statement (to police), you said you loved him. You told police he was the perfect man.”
“Yes,” McMaster said. “When it was good, it was good.”
“And did you love him that night?” Zerega asked.
“Yes,” McMaster replied. “I still do.”
On cross-examination, District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. drew attention to inconsistencies between McMaster’s testimony on the stand and what she initially told police in the hours after the stabbing.
Recalling her testimony that she hid the knife that was allegedly used to threaten her, Heneks asked McMaster if she also remembered telling the court that there were other knives in the vehicle. She testified she was only worried about the knife he had most recently used to threaten her.
Heneks also asked McMaster about her testimony that she had been off drugs for eight months before the incident. “What about the Xanax?” Heneks asked.
McMaster said she had been using Xanax to deal with her emotions, but she did not have a prescription.
“Would that have been a violation at the methadone clinic?” Heneks asked, and McMaster agreed it would have been.
Heneks wanted to know why, if McMaster had been punched or struck in the head as many times as she claimed, did she not seek medical attention when she took Blair to the hospital or while she was speaking to police.
“I just lost my fiance to my own hands,” McMaster replied emotionally. She said she wasn’t concerned with her own injuries at the time.
Heneks pointed out that police didn’t note any injuries evident on her face, and McMaster said Blair mostly hit her above the hairline where the bruises wouldn’t be visible. Heneks countered by saying that the statement McMaster initially made to police indicated that Blair had struck her on the jaw and face.
Heneks asked McMaster if, when she hid the knife under her leg, she intended to harm Blair.
“You opened the knife because you intended to stab him,” Heneks said.
“I intended to defend myself,” McMaster replied.
“He was hitting you, and you put this knife into his chest,” Heneks said, holding the weapon for the court to see. “Isn’t that what you did?”
“He made it that way, though,” McMaster said through sobs.
“To the extent that the hilt stopped it from going farther,” Heneks continued. Previously, jurors were shown an autopsy photo that showed “hilt marks” near the stab wound.
“I was being strangled,” McMaster said.
Zerega called Dr. Mary Catherine Burke to testify regarding battered person’s syndrome toward the end of the third day of trial. Burke will resume testimony before Senior Judge Gerald R. Solomon at 9:10 a.m.