Lovers' quarrel turned deadly
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
The Union Leader
N.H. - MANCHESTER - After a lovers' quarrel turned violent, an enraged and bloodied Caryn L. Acevedo drew a steak knife from its holder in the kitchen and fatally stabbed her boyfriend in the back last month, court documents released yesterday reveal.
Acevedo, 23, told police William B. Burns, 28, punched her several times in the head and she "just wanted to scare him" when she went for the knife, thinking the 6-inch blade would only bruise him, a police affidavit said.
"She said that she stabbed him because she had so much hurt and anger built up inside her," the police affidavit revealed.
"She didn't want him to go to jail or the hospital, but also didn't want him to think that she was someone's personal punching bag," the affidavit said.
Acevedo, who worked as a receptionist at a local dance studio, is charged with manslaughter for stabbing Burns to death in the couple's 245 Village Circle Way apartment about 7:40 p.m. May 15.
Burns, a 1995 West High School graduate and former Bedford resident who worked at Home Depot in Portsmouth, died about an hour later at Elliot Hospital from the wound, which perforated his lung and aorta.
Acevedo later told detectives "nobody deserved being stabbed" and regretted what she had done, court records disclose.
But Acevedo - whose T-shirt was bloody, had blood coming from her mouth and swollen lips and face when she opened her apartment door to police - said she was "feeling a lot of rage" and felt threatened by Burns.
Acevedo said the couple moved into the apartment last summer or fall after they met while receiving treatment for heroin addiction at a rehabilitation center. Relatives said they planned to marry.
She said neither had used drugs in the last eight months.
The police affidavit gave the following account:
The evening began with a glass of wine at dinner, then the couple snuggled up beneath blankets on the living room floor to watch a movie.
Afterwards, Acevedo said Burns wanted to have sex, but she said she wasn't interested.
Burns, she told police, got upset and held her hands over her head. When he let her go, Acevedo said she went into the spare bedroom and began packing a bag with clothes.
Acevedo told police Burns followed her into the room and she threatened to jump out the third-floor apartment. Burns, instead, left the apartment, and Acevedo propped a chair against the doorknob.
But Burns returned 10 minutes later, pushed in the door and flung Acevedo to the floor where she hit her head and "kind of blacked out," she told police.
Burns angrily accused her of cheating on him, got on top of Acevedo and punched her in the head five or six times until she was able to push him off her about 5 to 10 minutes later.
Acevedo said she went into the kitchen and grabbed the knife. Burns came toward her, but turned and started to walk away when - without a word spoken between the two - she stabbed him in the left side of his back.
Acevedo said she held the knife to her side and wasn't even sure Burns had seen it before she stabbed him.
"She said that she thought he probably intended to hurt her, just like she intended to hurt him when she got the knife," Det. Sgt. Scott Legasse wrote in the affidavit.
"She said she didn't know what she was going to do, and that he was coming at her, and she felt somewhat threatened because of what had happened before," Legasse wrote.
Acevedo told police she didn't think "a knife like the one she used would actually go through his skin."
When blood began spurting from Burns' wound, Acevedo said she tried to stop the bleeding with a towel and called the 911 emergency line several times, but became disconnected.
While being treated at the hospital for facial cuts and bruises, Acevedo asked to speak with police. She later was brought to headquarters where she waived her Miranda rights and confessed to the stabbing and appeared to fully cooperate with police.
Among the dozens of items police seized in the apartment were a black-handle kitchen knife, butcher block knife set, hypodermic needle, pill bottles, empty liquor bottles, a bottle of wine and another of vodka and a diary, court records show.
Burns was arrested March 3 and charged with assaulting Acevedo twice and obstructing the report of a crime by grabbing the telephone away from her when she tried to call police, court records show.
Charges were dropped May 6, four days before Burns was set to go on trial.
Acevedo told police the night she stabbed Burns that she called police in the prior incident because she feared Burns' violence would escalate.
"She said that she ultimately regretted calling the police during that incident and had not wanted anything to happen to him," Lagasse wrote.
Acevedo is free on $50,000 bail. No plea could be entered on the felony manslaughter charge in Manchester District Court last month. Her case will now go to the Hillsborough County grand jury.
Before moving to Manchester, Acevedo lived with her grandparents in Sanford, Maine.
A Maine grand jury indicted Acevedo Oct. 4 for allegedly stealing $2,559.50 from her grandparents' ATM account in May and June 2004. She avoided jail time by agreeing to get help for substance abuse.
