DONALDSONVILLE, La. (TCD) — A jury convicted a 44-year-old woman of breaking into a house and stabbing her fiancé’s other girlfriend after she reportedly confessed to her pastor.
23rd Judicial District Attorney Ricky Babin announced Monday, Nov. 6, that Peggy Valentine was found guilty of attempted first-degree murder and home invasion.
According to a news release from the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, on May 4, 2022, at around 4:17 a.m., deputies responded to a report of a home invasion on Elizabeth Street. Inside the residence, deputies located a female victim suffering from multiple stab wounds. She was transported to a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and later released.
Further investigation revealed Valentine broke into the home and stabbed the victim with a box cutter while she was sleeping, Babin said. The victim reportedly fought off Valentine, who fled the scene following the attack.
Valentine confessed to the crime during an interview with detectives, and she was arrested and booked into the Ascension Parish Jail.
The sheriff’s office said it was “not a random act.”
According to WAFB-TV, the victim had a baby with Valentine’s fiancé. In court, Valentine’s attorney reportedly argued that she was invited inside the home and went there with baby clothes. Valentine’s attorney alleged there were no signs of forced entry, WAFB reports.
Valentine reportedly called her pastor, who also works as a major for the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, and told him she went to the home in an attempt to catch her fiancé with the victim. Another deputy was in the room during that discussion, WAFB reports.
Valentine’s attorney made an effort to have the conversation removed from evidence because of pastor privilege. However, the judge determined there was no expectation of privacy because Valentine wasn’t alone with her pastor, and the judge allowed the jury to hear the confession.
Valentine is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27, 2024, and she faces decades in state prison.
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