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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A Johnstown woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in Blair County Court to a first-degree felony charge of aggravated assault filed a year ago after the stabbing of an Altoona woman outside Logan Hills Apartments.
Jennifer Teeter, 45, rendered the guilty plea for a negotiated sentence of three to 10 years' incarceration, followed by five years' probation, defense attorney Benjamin Kahn said Wednesday.
In exchange for the plea, the district attorney's office withdrew charges of attempted homicide, reckless endangerment, simple assault and an additional count of aggravated assault.
Teeter has been in the county prison since May 30, 2022, when Altoona police identified her as the person who, outside the apartment complex, stabbed a woman three times in her abdomen and once in the arm, then drove away.
Police said that prior to the stabbing, a witness heard Teeter yelling at the stabbing victim and telling the victim she owed her money.
The stabbing victim, however, said she didn't know Teeter.
In filing charges against Teeter, police reported that the victim told them she didn't initially realize she was stabbed.
Upon seeing blood, the stabbing victim said she wrapped a shirt around her arm and drove to her home, where her boyfriend convinced her to go to the hospital, police reported. She was subsequently taken into surgery to repair a main artery.
Police also reported that they were able to identify Teeter after a witness offered a photo of the license plate on the vehicle that Teeter was driving. After identifying Teeter as the owner, Altoona police contacted Johnstown police who found the vehicle parked outside Teeter's residence.
Court documents indicate that Teeter told Altoona police that she had stabbed the victim in self-defense.
Kahn declined Wednesday to offer further explanation for his client's actions. The entry of a guilty plea to the aggravated assault charge, he said, was in her best interest because it allowed the attempted homicide charge to be withdrawn and it imposed a lesser sentence.
Had Teeter gone to trial and been convicted of aggravated assault, she would have been facing seven to eight years in prison, he said.
President Judge Elizabeth A. Doyle accepted the plea and imposed the negotiated sentence.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.