An Ocean Isle Beach woman has pleaded guilty in connection with a June 2014 stabbing that required the female victim to be airlifted to the hospital.
Elizabeth Michelle Grig, 26, of Erin Place, pleaded guilty Wednesday morning in Brunswick County Superior Court to assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflicting serious injury. As part of her plea agreement, all other charges in the case, including an attempted first-degree murder charge, were dismissed by the state.
According to Assistant District Attorney Daniel Thurston, the incident happened on June 8, 2014, at the defendant’s grandmother’s Erin Place home in Ocean Isle Beach where she and the victim were living at the time,
Grig and another woman, who was 37 years old at the time of the incident, got into an altercation at the home. Grig stabbed the woman in the neck, then forced her underneath the house.
“It appears the confrontation was the result of a semi-roommate relationship,” Thursdon said. “The victim in this case…had been dating the defendant’s father. The defendant’s father had gone to jail and it appears that the defendant blamed the victim for her father’s [incarceration] – and no longer wanted her to be in the residence and required that [the victim] move out of her grandma’s house.”
The confrontation started when Grig threw all of the victim’s belongings out of the house. When law enforcement arrived at the home, Grig told deputies the victim was underneath the house. The victim was found unresponsive under the house. She was airlifted to New Hanover Regional Medical Center to be treated for a stab wound to her neck.
“The blade of the knife had broken off in the side of her neck,” Thurston said.
The victim remained in the hospital for five days. The North Carolina Victims Compensation Fund accrued $30,000 in medical expenses for the victim in the case, half of which was for the air transport to the hospital, Thurston said. The victim in the case was not present for Wednesday’s plea.
“The defendant showed a certain amount of remorse for her actions,” Thurston said.
Attorney Mike Ramos, who represented Grig in the case, said Grig has substantial psychological issues and has been hospitalized “numerous times,” adding that she was suffering from “severe psychosis” at the time of the incident.
Superior Court Judge Richard Brown sentenced Grig 67 to 93 months in the N.C. Department of Corrections with credit for 667 days served in the Brunswick County Jail. He also ordered Grig to pay $30,000 in restitution. She will receive a psychological evaluation and medical treatment while in prison.
