Woman Gets Prison Time for Austell Stabbing

An East Point woman will spend the next eight years in prison after a Cobb County jury convicted for stabbing another woman she was having an argument with outside a home in Austell, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.

According to the DA, 29-year-old Mary Riden showed up uninvited at the home of Shekila Dupree and Trevor Burge at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, 2013. Burge is the father of one of Riden’s children.

Riden began arguing with Burge and Dupree in their front yard, and eventually slapped Dupree across the face. A fight ensured, and Riden used a steak knife she had brought from her car to stab Dupree. The victim received wounds to her forearm and right side, a collapsed lung, and permanent scarring

A Cobb County jury heard opening arguments in the case on Monday, and took only two hours to return a conviction on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery on Wednesday, the DA said. Following the conviction, Riden was sentenced to eight years in prison and was ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution.

“This incident happened on a Friday night after the victim had worked hard all day. All she wanted was some peace and quiet. All Mary Riden wanted was a fight, and now she has to live with the consequences of her violence,” assistant district attorney Brendan F. Murphy said in a statement. “She’s very lucky that this wasn’t a murder trial.”