WASHINGTON — A Bowie man will spend the rest of his life in prison after violating a restraining order and repeatedly stabbing his ex-girlfriend with a kitchen knife.
A jury convicted Kittrell Budd, 27, in May of attempted first-degree murder and violating a protective order in the Dec. 3, 2017, attack. He was sentenced to life in prison by Judge Cheryl McCally on Friday in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
“He laid in wait with a knife so that he could stab her multiple times,” said Montgomery County State’s Attorney Spokesman Ramon Korionoff.
If it wasn’t for a neighbor who ran out and yelled for Budd to stop his attack on the Gaithersburg woman, she might have died, he said.
Budd’s victim is expected to have long-term physical and emotional injuries from the attack, which occurred on the frigid December night.
The two had a three-year on-again-off-again relationship, a release from the State’s Attorney’s office said. She had taken out a restraining order against Budd on Dec. 2, 2017, after he strangled and beat her.
On the day of the attack, Court filings said she returned to her apartment just after midnight from her job at a nearby grocery store.
As the woman approached her building, she noticed someone lurking in the stairwell. When she realized it was Budd, she ran away. He chased her, tackled her and began stabbing her in the face and neck, cutting her in the temple and base of her skull.
When she tried to grab the knife, she was cut in the hand, court filings said. Budd also stabbed her in the torso during the attack.
When a neighbor ran out and began shouting for Budd to get off her, he ran away and dropped the knife, filings said. The woman ran to her apartment, leaving a trail of spurting blood as she made it to safety. Her sister called 911.
“Her boyfriend just stabbed her and she’s bleeding,” her sister said to dispatchers according to the release.
When paramedics arrived, the woman was barely conscious, bleeding and vomiting blood.
She was treated for several broken bones, a spinal injury and required stitches and staples on her face, a release from the state’s attorney’s office said. She had to live on a liquid diet for weeks after the attack, because Budd broke her jaw.
At Friday’s sentencing, prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence — life — even though sentencing guidelines were between 20 and 30 years because the crime was so heinous, Korionoff said.
Budd has had had run-ins with the law previously.
“This was an attempt to murder his ex girlfriend,” spokesman Korionoff said. “If he couldn’t have her nobody would.”
