The Whitefish woman accused of stabbing her husband in the chest during an argument now faces a murder charge after her husband was taken off life support last weekend.
Flathead Deputy County Attorney Travis Ahner filed the new, mitigated deliberate homicide charge against AnnMari Helt Newton on Jan. 3, with an alternate charge of negligent homicide.
Newton, 39, was originally charged with felony assault with a weapon after she allegedly stabbed her husband, Chad Newton, 37, during a Nov. 25 argument. Chad Newton was taken off life support at Kalispell Regional Medical Center on Dec. 29, and the Flathead County coroner confirmed his death the next day.
Prior to Newton’s death, AnnMari Newton’s bond was decreased to $25,000, which she posted and was released from jail. Ahner said that the Flathead County District Court judge in this case issued a summons that AnnMari Newton appear for a bond modification hearing on Jan. 23, instead of issuing a bench warrant for her arrest.
According to court documents, police officers responded to the Newton residence on O’Brien Avenue in Whitefish on Nov. 25 after receiving a report that a man had been stabbed.
Upon arrival, they found AnnMari Newton outside the house, speaking on the phone with dispatch, and directing officers inside the house. Officers found Chad Newton in the kitchen, lying on the floor, unresponsive and bleeding from his left side.
A detective spoke with a man who had been staying with the Newtons, identified as Eirik Jorgensen, who stated that the couple had been “arguing heavily” in the days before the incident, and both had been “drinking more and more.”
The Nov. 25 fight began early in the day, Jorgensen stated, and at one point he went into the kitchen and allegedly saw AnnMari Newton holding a big knife and facing her husband in a combative stance.
Jorgensen said he told AnnMari Newton to put the knife down, and that she told him to “shut up.” He also reported hearing Chad Newton yelling, “If you try to stab me with that knife I will kill you.”
When his back was turned from the fight, Jorgensen told investigators that he heard a scream and turned around to see Chad Newton lying face down on the floor, bleeding.
AnnMari Newton allegedly told detectives that she and her husband had been in the kitchen when they started arguing, and that she was holding a knife, which she thrust toward him and stabbed him.
She allegedly said she did not mean to stab him, and that it was an accident; she had been standing with her back to him, and that she had made a stabbing motion with the knife to warn her husband to back off, without realizing how close he had been standing to her.
Responding personnel took Chad Newton to Kalispell Regional Medical Center immediately, and he was placed in intensive care.
After gaining the right to make end-of-life decisions for him, Chad Newton’s family took him off life support on Dec. 29 after doctors reported that his chances of making a meaningful recovery was zero, and that his condition had deteriorated and he was unable to breathe on his own.
The couple’s children were home at the time of the fight, according to investigators, and were unharmed. Child Protective Services placed them with a family friend, though prosecutors say they believe AnnMari Newton is back in contact with them.