A woman accused of stabbing her husband to death — a grisly scene apparently witnessed by their three young children in room No. 3080 of an extended-stay hotel west of the Strip — allegedly told paramedics she did so because she is the devil.
First responders treating Octavia Shanta Carter after the slaying also reported hearing her say that God had made her the way she was, according to a Metro Police arrest report.
Carter, 40, was being held on one count of murder at the Clark County Detention Center. Johnny Franklin was declared dead at the Budget Suites room, 4205 W. Tropicana Ave.
The three kids, ages 8 to 11, ran into the complex’s office about 9:30 a.m. to say that their father was injured and bleeding, police said. Employees called 911 and a dispatcher made a phone call into the family’s room.
The woman who answered was “nonchalant” and noncooperative before the line went dead when one of the children took the phone.
An officer arrived to find a bloodied Carter, who directed police to the slaying scene, police said. Franklin was already dead, police said. A paramedic interviewed by detectives said Carter repeatedly admitted to the crime while they were on the way to the hospital, where she was treated for several cuts.
Carter appeared lucid and said she hadn’t had alcohol but said she had consumed marijuana, said a paramedic, according to police.
At the hospital, police observed Carter rocking back and forth and going into some sort of “trance,” the report said. “I observed her say, ‘I’m a coward, I should have killed myself too,” an officer wrote in the report. She would occasionally snap out of it and ask about her children, police said.
Investigators recovered two bloody knives in the unit, police said. When detectives tried to interview Carter, she appeared confused “and would just stare blankly.”
The interview stopped when she started crying and said she couldn’t continue, police said.
Meanwhile, the oldest child told police that “mommy was squeezing daddy very tight and stabbed daddy in the life” — a line repeated by the other two kids, according to police.
The children were placed in the care of Clark County Child Protective Services, the Associated Press reported.