Clearlake police responded to the report of a stabbing, Thursday, June 5, on Austin Drive near Mullen Avenue.
Eighteen-year-old suspect Gabrielle Varney told police during interviews on Friday, she acted in self defense and didn”t realize she had stabbed victim Heather Valdez, a 17-year-old peer at Carl? High School in Lower Lake, a continuation school where both were juniors.
The stabbing death occurred shortly after both were let off the school bus at about 2 p.m. Thursday. Valdez was dead by the time law enforcement officials responded to the Austin Drive, Clearlake location nearby where both the suspect and victim lived.
According to Clearlake Police Department Lt. Mike Hermann, the story Varney told investigators Friday was that prior to six months ago, she and Valdez had been friends, but something said six months ago set a different tune, and the two began feuding.
Neither had been involved in any physical altercations with each other before. Hermann said he couldn”t say what it was that set off the feud. “But I will say it was a petty dispute,” Hermann said.
School officials reported there were “no warning signs” and Hermann said that was true, at least in terms of any previous physical altercations.
“It was just words exchanged. The suspect said there was badgering,” Hermann said.
What led to the stabbing Thursday began as words exchanged on the bus ride home after school let out that day at 1:30 p.m., according to statements Clearlake Police Department investigators gathered. There were some witnesses on the school bus to the words slung back and forth between Valdez and Varney, but there were no witnesses to the actual stabbing.
According to Hermann, Varney stated that the victim pushed her as she was getting off the bus. Then, with the victim walking ahead of her on the street, the suspect claims she said some words, allegedly to herself, that caused the victim to turn on her heels and confront the suspect.
“The victim reportedly began punching, but Gabrielle had the knife out. It was a folding pocket knife,” Hermann said.
He added that Varney stated she “did not know at what point the stabbing took place.” Varney alleges she did not open the knife until Valdez came walking toward her, and “claims that she did not intend to stab the victim.”
He said, “Sadly, I don”t think violence among girls is that surprising. This is sad here, that it got to that point for something that was words going back and forth the suspect felt threatened. In our minds does that justify stabbing? No, it does not.”
Several people, not school officials, reported to Hermann that bullying had been going on between the two, but “unfortunately people perceive things in different ways. This is something that festered with her [Varney]. We”re not sure whether she brought the knife with the intent of causing fatal injury; then again, why the knife?” Hermann said.
Varney, wearing black and white stripes, appeared in Lake County Superior Court in Department Two at 1:30 p.m. Monday for arraignment on charges of murder and using a knife to commit murder. Her defense attorney Stephen Carter said plea entry is set for June 20.
Observer*American staff reports contributed to this article.
