Deputies say the physical record did not line up with a Casper woman’s claim that she stabbed in self-defense.
CASPER, Wyo. — The felony case against a Casper woman accused of stabbing her husband while he fed their infant has turned on what investigators say they could verify inside the home, on video and through records, rather than on the sharply conflicting stories the couple told after the attack.
Tabatha Richardson, 37, is charged with aggravated assault and battery in a Dec. 9, 2025 stabbing that left her husband wounded in the neck. The case now stands out because detectives say a bedroom camera, downloaded phone data, medical records and the layout of the scene all undercut her account that she was defending herself, while also pointing to worries over divorce and custody that were already hanging over the household.
Deputies said some of the most important evidence was collected after they searched the house and reviewed a camera that had been moved from outside the residence to a bedroom. According to the affidavit, the video showed Richardson about 2 1/2 hours before the stabbing using a small sledgehammer on herself, striking her back, shoulders and left ribs. Investigators later said the bruises they observed were round and consistent with the hammer. They also found a blue and yellow concrete chisel connected to the same line of inquiry and reported that Richardson later admitted scratching herself with it. A separate point of concern for detectives was the knife. Richardson said she opened it with one hand while holding the baby, but investigators described it as a common lock-blade knife without spring assist and said her demonstration required two hands. For detectives, those details were not side issues. They were central to whether the violence was spontaneous or prepared.
The first public version of events came through two 911 calls made from the same house. Richardson told dispatchers her husband had been on the couch and had started attacking her as she walked by. Her husband told dispatchers he had just been stabbed without provocation and feared for the children’s safety. Later interviews at Banner Wyoming Medical Center followed the same split. Richardson said he punched her in the ribs and scratched her while she held their son in her right arm, and she said she pulled a knife from her bra with her left hand and stabbed him to stop the attack. Her husband said he had come to the home to visit the children, made a bottle and sat on the couch feeding the baby. After the baby finished, he said, he was holding the child to help him sleep when Richardson spoke and he felt something strike the right side of his neck. He said he touched blood, set the baby down and fled after she tried to stab him again.
From there, investigators built the case outward into the family’s private records. Deputies said they found messages Richardson sent to herself about physical abuse and saved items about how to testify regarding abuse. A warrant for medical records, according to the affidavit, found that Richardson had told a physician in November that there was no physical abuse by her husband, even as she worried about divorce and the possibility of losing custody of the children. Investigators also said downloaded phone communications showed she was concerned that her medical condition could affect custody and believed her husband had started another relationship before seeking a divorce. A later statement in January alleging 18 years of abuse was noted in the reports, but deputies said they found nothing on the husband’s phone that supported abuse claims. Taken together, the records gave detectives what they appear to view as motive, contradiction and timing.
The physical setting inside the house also shaped the investigation. Deputies reported finding baby clothes, a blood-stained blanket and a black folding knife with a stain on the blade. They said there were blood traces but no signs of a struggle, a point they considered important because Richardson described a close physical confrontation while she was holding an infant. Investigators also said the sledgehammer turned up in the garage squeezed into a narrow gap between a refrigerator and cardboard, as though it had been tucked away. The chisel was not found at first and was later recovered from under a sleeping bag after questioning. Those details added a second layer to the case, moving it beyond a single violent moment and into the broader question of what happened in the hours before the husband arrived and what objects were moved afterward.
By the time the charge was filed, the case was no longer simply about who said what in the first minutes after the stabbing. It was about whether a self-defense story could survive comparison with video, medical history, tool placement and the mechanics of the knife itself. The family setting made the allegations more stark. A child was in the home, another child reportedly heard the confrontation and the husband told deputies his first concern after he realized he was bleeding was getting away and protecting the children. Richardson, for her part, tied her conduct to fear for herself and her children. That leaves the court to sort through a case that mixes alleged domestic violence, competing abuse claims, divorce stress and a prosecution built heavily on forensic contradiction rather than on one witness alone.
Tabatha Richardson has been released after posting 10% of a $30,000 cash or surety bond. Reports said an arraignment date had not yet been set. The charge carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if she is convicted.
Author note: Last updated April 19, 2026.