A Center Township man was in stable condition this morning after being stabbed by a stranger whom he’d let in his home to use the phone, the Porter County Sheriff’s Police.

Meanwhile, the alleged stabber, a Valparaiso woman, has been charged with aggravated battery.

According to police, at 3:52 p.m. an officer was dispatched to the scene of an accident on Marigold Lane, where a woman who reportedly appeared intoxicated had crashed her vehicle into a ditch. While trying to find the vehicle in question, the officer located a 64-year-old man alongside the roadway, in the 1900 block of Crescent Road, who had just been stabbed.

The man—who was transported to Porter Regional Hospital with life-threatening stab wounds to his chest and cuts to his hands and face—advised police that his assailant was a woman who had asked to use his phone.

Investigators subsequently took Billie Jo Moore, 49, into custody near the crime scene.

The initial investigation indicates that Moore had crashed her vehicle into the ditch, then walked to Crescent Road, where the 64-year-old man was outside getting his mail, police said. Moore asked the man whether she could use his phone, he let her inside, and shortly after entering the man’s home Moore grabbed a knife from the kitchen table, went into the living room, and attacked the man “for unknown reasons,” police said.

Moore was treated for minor injuries at Porter hospital, where she tested positive for cocaine and marijuana in her system, police said.

Sgt. Larry LaFlower told the Chesterton Tribune this morning that the victim was in stable condition in the Intensive Care Unit.

Aggravated battery is a Class B felony punishable by a term of six to 20 years. Moore is being held without bond pending her initial appearance in court late today or sometime on Friday.

Posted 10/11/2012