Vancouver woman who stabbed husband gets 8 years

A Vancouver woman was sentenced last week to eight years in prison for stabbing her husband after he apparently told her he wanted a divorce.

Momlamai Dara, 61, pleaded guilty to domestic violence first-degree assault May 25 in Clark County Superior Court. Judge Suzan Clark accepted the plea agreement and sentencing recommendation, which includes 36 months of community custody and a no-contact order with the victim.

Dara pleaded guilty to the amended charge with the assistance of a Laotian interpreter; she originally faced attempted murder.

She was arrested Dec. 5, 2019, after Vancouver police responded to the 2800 block of East 24th Street, on the edge of Fourth Plain Village, for an incomplete 911 call. Dara told a 911 dispatcher that “she decided to take (her husband’s) life” because he wanted to end their relationship, according to a probable cause affidavit.

When police arrived, Dara was standing at the front door of her home with a phone in her hand. She immediately said that she stabbed her husband and then pointed to the right side of her upper chest, the affidavit stated.

“She stated she just gets mad sometimes and doesn’t see everything clear,” the affidavit says.

Dara’s husband was rushed to the hospital and into surgery, court records say. He reportedly told hospital staff that his wife attacked him.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Anna Klein said at Dara’s first court appearance that the knife barely missed the man’s aorta. A second stab in his abdomen nicked his liver.

“A doctor indicated she almost succeeded in taking his life,” Klein told the judge at the 2019 appearance.