A man facing charges of stabbing a woman in early August last year is scheduled to go before a Baxter County Circuit Court jury beginning Tuesday.Forty-eight-year-old Tony Griffin is an inmate in the Ester Unit of the state prison system on an earlier conviction from Columbia County in the southern part of the state.
His Baxter County charges include criminal attempt to commit murder in the first degree and third-degree battery.
In a letter written in mid-May, Griffin inquired about moving his trial to another location. He said as a black man, he did not believe he could get a fair trial in Baxter County. Griffin further alleged he had been threatened while living in this area and also at the North Central Unit of the state prison system at Calico Rock, where he had been an inmate for a time. He said he was in fear for his life.
Griffin was arrested Aug. 4 last year when police were called to a Mountain Home motel where they reported finding two people covered in blood. The woman said she had been stabbed, and Griffin is alleged to have admitted he was the one who had wielded the knife.
According to court records, Griffin and the woman were arguing when Griffin is alleged to have grabbed her by the throat, pulled her from the bicycle she was on and stabbed her a number of times.
He told officers the woman owed him money and that she had threatened to have him “taken care of” if he continued to demand repayment.
When the victim was interviewed at Baxter Regional Medical Center, she said she had been staying in Griffin’s motel room for nearly two weeks. She told police on the day of the altercation, she had gone to the motel to return Griffin’s room key since she wanted to end the relationship.
According to the woman, Griffin was attempting to pull her into his room when the stabbing occurred. The altercation ended when other people in the area came to assist, after hearing the woman’s cries for help.
Court records indicate Griffin has had past legal problems stemming from alleged threats to a supervisor at a flooring company in the Columbia County city of Magnolia where he worked and stabbing a woman he dated.
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