Jury Trial For Wooldridge Scheduled For Aug. 9-12

Vickie Louise Wooldridge

A four-day jury trial has been scheduled again for the Nappanee woman accused of stabbing three people – one fatally – in their Warsaw home in December 2020.

Public records filed in the Kosciusko County Clerk’s Office indicate the trial for Vickie Louise Wooldridge will start at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 9 and go through Aug. 12 in Kosciusko Circuit Court with Judge Michael Reed presiding.

Wooldridge faces charges of murder, a Level 1 felony; attempted murder with the intent to kill another person, a Level 1 felony; aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony; criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, a Level 3 felony; and battery by means of a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony.

According to a previous Times-Union story, the probable cause affidavit states that at approximately 9:49 a.m. Dec. 15, 2020, the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to a Warsaw address regarding a woman, later identified as Wooldridge, stabbing people.

Upon arrival, deputies spoke with Diane Burr, who said her son’s girlfriend had stabbed her husband, William Burr, and her son, Matthew Lucas, 42. Diane was able to identify Wooldridge to police officers, and they began a search for her.

Officers found William on the living room floor, having  at least one stab wound in the chest, court documents state.

Officers found Lucas in a basement bedroom and he had multiple stab wounds to the neck, face and chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Kosciusko County Coroner’s Office.

When police talked to Diane, she said she heard yelling in her home and asked William what he needed. William told Diane he was just yelling downstairs, telling Lucas and Wooldridge to stop arguing.

Later, Diane heard more screaming and entered the living room to find Wooldridge attacking William. Diane told police she attempted to pull Wooldridge off of her husband and Wooldridge began attacking her, according to the affidavit.

Diane tried to leave the residence to call police and said Wooldridge kept pulling her back into the home to prevent her from leaving.

Diane required medical attention for facial injuries, cuts to her hands and the loss of teeth, according to the affidavit.

When police spoke with William, he told police that he had heard yelling coming from downstairs and yelled down to ask if everything was all right and Wooldridge said everything was OK.

According to the affidavit, William said a short time later, Wooldridge came up from the basement, came up behind him and stabbed him in the chest while he was sitting there.

William said he began yelling for his wife, who then attempted to intervene. Once Diane was able to leave the residence to call police, William said he was able to obtain the knife from Wooldridge, and then she left the residence on foot.

Officers spent several hours searching the area for Wooldridge. A passerby observed a woman hiding in a dumpster several miles away from the home. When the passerby asked Wooldridge if she was OK, Wooldridge allegedly climbed out of the dumpster, was seen by law enforcement and taken into custody.

Diane died Dec. 28, 2020, due to health reasons.

On Feb. 12, 2021, Fort Wayne attorney Anthony A. Churchward, Wooldridge’s public defender, filed notice of intent to offer a defense of mental disease or defect and asked Reed to appoint medically-trained professionals who have expertise in determining insanity.

On Feb. 17, 2021, Reed did that and ordered one psychiatrist and one psychologist to be selected from the Otis R. Bowen Center for Human Services Inc. to examine Wooldridge. They were to report to the court whether Wooldridge had the ability at the time of the events alleged in this case to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct and whether Wooldridge has the ability to understand the current proceedings and ability to assist her attorney in proceedings to trial.

On Oct. 25, 2021, legal counsel determined the case would go to trial, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Feb. 8, 2022, for four days, but that was postponed.