Prosecutors say Robert Carragher was asleep when he was stabbed; Kristin Sculley’s lawyer says she feared a sexual assault.
MINEOLA, N.Y. — A Long Island woman charged with murder in a fatal Massapequa stabbing says she acted in self-defense, setting up a sharp fight over what happened before Robert Carragher died in his father’s arms.
Kristin Sculley, 22, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Carragher’s death. Nassau County prosecutors say she stabbed the 28-year-old while he slept in a basement bedroom at his family’s home. Her defense attorney, Dennis Lemke, told a judge that Sculley said Carragher drugged her and tried to sexually assault her, a claim prosecutors have disputed. The next hearing is scheduled for July 24.
The competing versions emerged after Sculley was indicted June 24 and arraigned before Judge Robert Bogle. Prosecutors described a late-night meeting that became deadly after Sculley and Carragher spent hours together in his bedroom. They said she took a knife from her purse and stabbed him once in the neck after an argument. Lemke gave a different account, telling the court that Sculley had been in a dazed state and woke to find Carragher on top of her. “That’s when she grabbed the knife that was there and stabbed him one time,” Lemke said in court. Prosecutors called the account inconsistent with their evidence and said Carragher was asleep when he was attacked.
The case began shortly after 1:30 a.m. June 1, when Nassau County police responded to a Beaumont Avenue home in Massapequa for a report of an aided person. Police said Carragher had been stabbed in the neck in a basement bedroom and made his way upstairs to the kitchen, where his parents tried to help him. Detective Lt. George Darienzo said Carragher was screaming as he sought his mother’s help. “The individual who died, died in his father’s arms,” Darienzo said. A police medic pronounced Carragher dead at the scene. Officers later found Sculley in the basement laundry room near the bedroom, police said, and recovered a pocketknife from her.
Investigators have said Sculley and Carragher knew each other for several years. Police first described her as an acquaintance or friend, while later court arguments placed drugs and a more complicated relationship at the center of the case. Lemke said Sculley had struggled with addiction, had recently relapsed and believed Carragher had given her a vape containing a substance that left her unable to move. Prosecutors said the pair had been using drugs together but said that did not make the stabbing lawful. Police have said they had evidence suggesting possible drug use, but Darienzo said soon after the killing that officers were not aware of drugs found in the home.
What remains unknown is likely to matter as the case moves forward. Officials have not released toxicology findings for Carragher or Sculley. They have not publicly described any sexual assault examination results, DNA testing, fingerprints on the knife, or a full map of the blood evidence inside the home. Lemke has questioned whether detectives should have taken Sculley to a hospital right away after she allegedly reported a sexual assault. Prosecutors have focused on her hiding in the laundry room and being found with a knife. The dispute leaves jurors, if the case reaches trial, to weigh a narrow set of physical facts against two very different accounts of fear, anger and intent.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office announced the indictment as a murder case tied to a sleeping victim. The charge, murder in the second degree, is an A-I felony. Sculley faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. She was remanded after her not guilty plea and remains jailed without bail. At the hearing, the courtroom was filled with relatives and supporters from both families. When the defense raised its self-defense claim, a person in the courtroom shouted “liar,” showing the anger already surrounding the case. The judge did not decide the truth of either version at that hearing, only Sculley’s custody status and the next step in the prosecution.
Carragher’s final movements are among the few parts of the case that police have described in detail. Darienzo said Carragher was in bed when he was stabbed and then climbed the stairs from the basement to reach his parents. His mother and father tried to stop the bleeding in the kitchen, but the wound struck a major blood vessel, according to police accounts. Friends later identified him as Bobby Carragher and described him as a person known for humor. “Anybody who knew Bobby, he was the funniest person alive,” friend Thomas Maloney said. Sculley’s relatives did not speak publicly after leaving court, and her lawyer has done most of the public talking for the defense.
The next phase of the case is expected to focus on records and testing rather than public statements. Prosecutors may turn over police reports, forensic lab results, medical findings and any statements made by Sculley. The defense may seek records about Sculley’s condition, any examination after her arrest, and evidence that could support her claim that she was drugged or assaulted. The court also could hear arguments over whether statements to police can be used at trial. No trial date has been announced, and officials have not said whether plea talks have taken place.
For now, the court record holds two sharply different accounts of the same basement encounter. Sculley remains jailed pending her July 24 appearance.
Author note: Last updated July 6, 2026.