Man Arrested in Rock Springs Stabbing Investigation
A Rock Springs man was set to make his initial appearance in Sweetwater County Circuit Court on Monday following his arrest in connection with a stabbing.
Kenneth Peterson, 41, was booked into jail on a recommended charge of aggravated assault and battery. If formally charged and convicted, Peterson could face up to 10 years in prison.
Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell said in a statement that county detectives and deputies arrested Peterson on Friday at a motor home he shares with the female victim in the case. Lowell declined to identify the victim.
The victim reported the alleged assault Friday morning, telling a detective that she and Peterson had been dating since December, moved from Rock Springs to Indiana, and then recently returned to Rock Springs.
The victim reportedly said that she and Peterson had been arguing over a missing methamphetamine pipe. She told the detective that Peterson cut up some of her clothing with a knife, "slapped her in the mouth," "stabbed her," and "continued to punch her in the head," per Lowell's statement.
Peterson later allegedly told the victim that it might be best if she left, the victim told the detective, "because he was going to end up slitting her throat." She left and went to a friend's home.
The detective, Lowell said, saw bruising to the victim "around both of her eyes, nose and forehead" in addition to a puncture wound to the victim's rib cage.
The victim was treated at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs. Lowell said her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
The case remains under investigation.