The attorney for the alleged perpetrator in a Nov. 8 stabbing at the Quality Quarters hotel in Richmond claimed Wednesday that his client was the true victim in the case.
Donald “D.J.” Potter Jr. of Mount Rushmore Drive had a finger severed in the altercation that involved his first cousin, Felicia Potter, defense attorney James Baechtold said during a preliminary hearing in Madison District Court.
Donald Potter left the scene to receive medical attention, Baechtold said, and went to a Cincinnati hospital, where his finger was re-attached and nerve connection restored.
He surrendered to police in the office of Richmond attorney Jerry Gilbert on Dec. 10 and was charged with first-degree assault, according to Sgt. Willard Reardon, Richmond Police spokesperson.
Donald Potter appeared in court with a heavily bandaged right hand.
RPD Detective Eric Long testified he followed a trail of blood up the stairs to the hotel’s second floor after he was dispatched to the scene at 4:45 p.m. the day of the incident. Blood also was on the stairway wall, he said.
There was a amount of blood on the carpet of the second floor landing, where the first officers on the scene found Felicia Potter sitting when they arrived. Another trail of blood led to a garbage can where investigating officer retrieved a pocket knife. The blood trail continued to the hotel parking lot, the detective said, where someone probably had enter a vehicle and left.
A steak knife with no evidence of blood was found in the room where the altercation took place, Long said.
Felicia Potter was taken to Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center and then the University of Kentucky Medical Center where she was treated for nine stab wounds and a collapsed lung, Long testified.
Most of the cuts were to her left hand, but she also suffered wounds in her back and the back of her head, the detective said.
The version of events contained in statements Long said police obtained from witnesses, Felicia Potter gave on the witness stand and Baechtold offered in court differ greatly.
Felicia Potter said Donald Potter called her and asked if he could to come to her hotel room and bring food items he had purchased with a gift card she had given him.
Once inside her room, Felicia Potter said her cousin demanded $90 of the $100 he thought she had. When she refused, he pulled out the pocket knife and said, “I’m gonna have to kill you.”
She was lying on the bed, Felicia said, when Donald Potter “jumped on top of me and stabbed me in the stomach.”
She then wrestled herself on top of her cousin, who is tall but slender, and was able to hold him in the bed, she said.
“You’re just trying to hold me until Wolf (her boyfriend Randall Campbell) gets back,” Felicia Potter quoted her cousin as saying. “He swore he’d leave if I let him up.”
Campbell had called earlier and said he would arrive at the hotel in about five minutes, she said.
After she released Donald Potter, however, Felicia Potter said her cousin began to stab her again, saying, “I’m gonna kill you.”
She ran to her a friend’s room two doors down the hall, she said, as Donald Potter stabbed her in the back and back of the head until she had safely entered the other room and locked the door.
“How did D.J. get his finger chopped off?” Baechtold asked Felicia Potter on the stand.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe his knife closed on his finger” as they wrestled on the bed.
Under questioning from Baechtold, Long said a “small amount” of marijuana was found in the room, but no one had been charged in connection with the discovery.
Baechtold attempted to discredit Felicia Potter’s testimony by introducing her criminal record, saying, “She has five felony convictions for drug trafficking.”
She then called out from the audience, “And I served my time, too.”
District Judge Charles Hardin admonished Potter, and she asked to be excused from the courtroom, which Hardin allowed.
Long said he interviewed Randall Campbell after the incident and was told he and H.T. Campbell had met Donald Potter coming down the stairs when they returned to the hotel. The only sign of a scuffle was a scratch on Donald Potter’s forehead, the detective said he was told.
Police had not investigated how Donald Potter’s finger was severed, Long said in a response to Baechtold’s questions. They also had not examined Donald Potter’s jacket that the defense attorney said “had cut marks all over it.”
Long said he interviewed Donald Potter Sr. at the hotel who told him his son had gotten into an altercation with Randall Campbell, and Felcia Potter was injured when she came between the two in an attempt to separate them.
The Campbells, along with Vickie Cornett, to whose room Felcia Potter said she fled, were not on the scene when police arrived, Long said.
H.T. Campbell and Cornett have not been located, Long said. Randall Campbell later told police that Felicia Potter asked him to leave because of an outstanding warrant for failure to pay child support, the detective said.
Randall Campbell was in court earlier Wednesday morning on unrelated charges, including first-degree assault, procession of drug paraphernalia and contempt of court.
If Felicia Campbell was the victim, why did she tell a material witness to leave the scene? Baechtold asked.
“There’s something fishy going on here,” the defense attorney said, as he asked Hardin to reduce Donald Potter’s $50,000 cash bond.
His client also needs to released to obtained medical treatment, Baechtold said.
Hardin found probable cause to send Donald Potter’s case to a grand jury, but he reduced his bond to $15,000 cash or property.
The judge also said he would be open to granting medical furloughs to the defendant.
Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@ richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.
Local News
Suspect had finger severed in hotel melee
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