Parking Lot Stabber Pleads Guilty to Attempted Murder

A woman who in 2005 stabbed two people in with butcher knives the day after she was released from prison has pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder for a 2011 stabbing in a Target parking lot. 

Antoinette C. Starks, 56, of Bowie, was found not to be criminally responsible for her actions and was remanded to the custody of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH), according to a statement from the Prince George’s State’s Attorney’s Office.

“We are pleased with the outcome of this case because Ms. Starks has been held accountable for her actions and it hopefully brings a sense of justice and closure to our victim,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks said in the statement.

“But it also allows for Ms. Starks to receive the help that she needs to deal with her issues.”

The Washington Post has reported Starks is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

In October 2011, police responded to the Vista Gardens Marketplace to find a 39-year-old woman with multiple stab wounds in the parking lot. Police found Starks in a nearby parking lot, still holding knives. When she was told to drop them, according to police, Starks continued walking. Police used a TASER to subdue her, then took her into custody.

The stabbing, police said, was unprovoked.  

The investigation determined Starks had taken the knives from a grocery store in the same shopping center and used them to attack the victim as she was putting grocery bags in her car.

Police confirmed to ABC7 that Starks had been involved in a similar attack years ago. In 2005 she reportedly chased shoppers in a Bethesda store with four butchers knives taped together to create two double-blade knives. She had been released from prison the day before, after serving time for malicious destruction of property, the Washington Post reported.

Starks was found not criminally responsible for the 2005 stabbing, according to the Post.

According to Alsobrook, Starks was committed to the DHMH in March 2012. The next month she was declared incompetent to stand trial.

In March 2013, she was found competent to stand trial and pleaded “not criminally responsible” for one charge of attempted murder and one charge of first-degree assault, according to Alsobrook. 

In May 2013 she was also found competent to stand trial, but not criminally responsible, by the DHMH.