ROSEVILLE, Mich. – A fight broke out in a courtroom Monday before a woman was charged in the deadly stabbing of her 31-year-old boyfriend.
Stacey Glass, 27, is charged with manslaughter in the death of Shane Bigger, who was found Saturday with multiple stab wounds at her house.
Words were exchanged between the families of Glass and Bigger in the courtroom, and the confrontation quickly escalated. Bigger's father grabbed Glass' brother, and the court officer and other family members had to break it up.
Bigger's father was then escorted out of the courtroom.
Two very different stories emerged about what led to the stabbing. The Bigger family said Glass was always abusive in the relationship, but the Glass family said the opposite. The Glass family brought pictures of Glass that they said were taken after Bigger beat her up.
"He choked her a few weeks before," Glass' brother said. "She came to my mother's house and had some marks on her neck."
The court officer said Glass was so badly beaten that she couldn't walk and couldn't come into the courtroom. She was instead arraigned via video.
"As a family, we're trying to piece together what happened, but she's 4-11, I mean, how could you be beaten that bad?" Glass' sister-in-law said. "He must have came after her multiple times, pinning her down. She can't even see out of her eyes."
Police said Bigger's injuries were from "an apparent edged weapon" and that he was stabbed multiple times.
Glass is being held on $100,000 bail at the Macomb County Jail and will be required to wear a tether if bail is posted.
She is scheduled to return to court Feb. 8 in the 39th District Court.
Close friends admit Bigger and Glass had a rocky relationship and insist that Glass was the aggressor. But Bigger decided to stick around.
"He loved her," family friend Samantha Grillo said. "He loved her daughter. He was going to raise her as his own. I just don't understand. Why him?"
What really happened Saturday morning is still being investigated, and it will be up to the court to decide which story stands.
Family and friends react
"For something like this to happen to somebody like that it's just -- there's, like, no words for it," family friend Vernecia Singletary said.
"My heart sank to my stomach," Grillo said. "I didn't believe it."
Friends and family held a vigil at 8 p.m. Sunday outside the home where Bigger was found.
When neighbors stepped outside, they saw police arresting Glass.
"I'm just waiting to hear what happened and what went on," neighbor Jenny Whitte said.
"Everything is pretty much unanswered," neighbor Fred Dhurst said. "Very strange. It's a quiet neighborhood."
"I saw her handcuffed and put in the car," neighbor Richard Noce said. "I was like, 'Wow, she's such a nice lady.' I don't know how this could happen."
A Michigan State Police forensic team marked evidence on the front lawn and inside the house.
"I would assume something happened in and out. They did take a vehicle away this morning," Whitte said. "I thought that there was a child that lived in that house, and that makes me wonder also."
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