Woman gets six years in stabbing

• A Hartford City woman who plunged a knife into a man's chest was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
• Katie Aspy won't begin serving that sentence until she completes a term for a theft conviction.

HARTFORD CITY – A Hartford City woman who plunged a butcher knife into a man's chest has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Katie Elizabeth Aspy, 28, had pleaded guilty to battery resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 3 felony that carried a maximum six-year sentence.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, a more serious serious charge — aggravated battery, a Level 5 felony that carried up to 16 years in prison — was dismissed.

A 34-year-old Hartford City man told police on Jan, 5 that Aspy had "set him up," suggesting "she would take care of him" if he visited her at a mutual friend's mobile home. When he arrived there, the man said, Aspy immediately stabbed him.

An officer who interviewed the victim at IU Health Blackford Hospital reported every time the man coughed "or made a loud noise, he would spray blood all over the room." He was later treated to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie.

Two people — Kevin J. McCallister, whose age and address were not listed on court records, and Mariah F. Hirst, 20, Modoc — were sentenced to time already served in the Blackford County jail after pleading guilty to assisting a criminal. They had been accused of trying to help Aspy avoid arrest the night of the stabbing.

A fourth co-defendant — Fredy R. Ticas, 57, Hartford City — is set to be sentenced May 1 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.

Aspy — sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Dean Young — will not begin serving her six-year prison term until she completes a 470-day sentence imposed after she was found to have violated her probation in a 2010 theft case.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.