Arizona State University Student Pleads Not Guilty to Stabbing Classmate in Random Attack
Kaci Sloan, an Arizona State University student who is accused of stabbing a fellow student twice in a Glendale classroom last month in an apparent random attack, filed a not-guilty plea in Maricopa County on Wednesday after two of her four counts were dropped last week.
In the attack on student Mara Daffron, Maricopa County authorities first accused Sloan, 19, of four felonies, including first-degree attempted murder. Sloan faces accusations of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon and disorderly behavior following a preliminary hearing on September 30, according to court documents.
Sloan was also given a cash bond of $250,000 by Judge Ashley Rahaman, who also specified the conditions of her release if she could post the full amount of bail. Sloan allegedly approached her classmate, Daffron, on Sept. 19 and stabbed her “multiple times,” according to an affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital and citing multiple witnesses.
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, Matthew McCormick, a student who watched the attack unfolding in class, acted quickly to halt the alleged stabbing, potentially saving Daffron’s life.
“In that moment, I didn’t really have a thought going through my head, I just knew that I felt compelled to do something,” McCormick told a news site. Approximately 13 witnesses to the crime, including a professor, reported it to police, who wrote in a probable cause document acquired by Fox News Digital that the stabbing occurred “without any provocation or any words spoken.”
In their report, police confirmed McCormick’s statement, noting that one of the witnesses “was able to disarm the defendant by pulling the knife from the defendant’s right hand and throwing it away from them.” Another witness “kicked the knife to the back of the classroom.”
“Another witness described the defendant was sitting in the classroom at a desk and suddenly got up and ran at the victim as the victim entered the classroom and stabbed her multiple times,” according to the documents.
Detectives discovered a handwritten letter inside Sloan’s backpack that presumably addressed an act she was “about to commit,” but it did “not specifically state what she was referring to.” Sloan reportedly allegedly stated a desire to “hurt somebody” in class that day in an interview with detectives following the incident, targeting Daffron because she was “an easier target” than the other person she considered hitting, whom she referred to as “a veteran.”
Authorities swiftly arrived on the scene and sent Daffron to a local hospital for treatment.
“ASU Police are still investigating a student’s stabbing on campus on September 19. Kaci Sloan was promptly apprehended and arrested on charges of first-degree attempted murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, interference with an educational institution, and disorderly conduct.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, an ASU official said she is being held on a $250,000 cash bond. “ASU and the entire ASU West Valley community are devastated by what occurred. ASU West Valley is a tight-knit community of students, instructors, and staff. Counseling services are offered to anyone.”
Sloan’s initial pretrial conference is slated for November 21.