P. v. Chatman CA4/1
Defendants and appellants Suzann Chatman and Rogers Butler were homeless and
occasional guests of the victim, Michael Burt, who, although he had been homeless, had a
small apartment. Apparently because they believed Burt had provided Chatman with a
date rape drug and then sexually assaulted her, late one evening Chatman and Butler
entered Burt's apartment and began attacking him. According to Burt, at one point, while
Butler held Burt down, Butler told Chatman to find him a knife because, "I'm going to
scalp this fucking Indian." Chatman found a knife, and, while Butler and Chatman held
Burt down, Butler began cutting the front of Burt's scalp; when Burt began bleeding
profusely, Chatman and Butler fled. Burt survived the attack, but, according to one of the
physicians who treated him, he had a laceration on his head that was eight centimeters
long and approximately three-eighths of an inch deep; the physician stated that the
laceration reached Burt's
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