Waldoboro woman acquitted in stabbing

WISCASSET – After nearly 12 hours of deliberations, jurors Friday acquitted a Waldoboro woman of all charges stemming from the fatal stabbing of her husband last summer at their home.

Jurors had the option of finding Amy Dugas guilty of murder or manslaughter. Instead, she was acquitted of both charges along with an assault charge levied because she bit an officer who was placing her in a police cruiser.

Testifying in her own defense, Dugas told jurors Thursday that what started as an argument over child support payments got out of control.

She said her husband, Mark, was stabbed while they wrestled on the floor June 4, but she said she didn’t know whose hand was on the knife. Mark Dugas staggered next door to get help and died in the neighbor’s entryway.

Jurors met for four hours Thursday and then nearly eight hours before rendering their verdict Friday in Lincoln County Superior Court.

Dugas has two children, ages 11 and 8, who now live with an aunt in Tennessee. One of them testified that Amy Dugas retrieved the knife from a silverware cabinet. Dugas testified that her husband got the knife from a camper in their yard.

Dugas testified that the couple had been drinking beer while repairing the camper. It was during that time they started arguing about Mark Dugas not making child support payments to his ex-wife, according to her testimony.

Amy and Mark Dugas were married March 15, 2002. She said they moved around the country because of the child support issue.

In the moments before the scuffle, Amy Dugas said, she told her husband that “maybe we should separate and do some soul-searching.” She said he responded by throwing his wedding ring on the floor, grabbing her by the hair and throwing her on a sofa, she said.

“He was on top of me with a knife in his left hand that he got from the camper,” she said. “He was threatening to kill himself, that he couldn’t take it anymore.”