Court documents reveal grisly details about deadly Blackfoot stabbing

BLACKFOOT – Court documents shed new light on a late-night stabbing that left a man dead and a woman being charged with murder.

Melissa Perkes, 35, appeared in court Tuesday via Zoom from the Bingham County Jail on a second-degree murder charge. She’s accused of stabbing 37-year-old Jace Williams to death Monday night.

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According to the police report, officers from the Blackfoot Police Department were called to an apartment building on the 100 block of North Broadway Street around 11:45 p.m.

A caller said there had been a stabbing and a man was “yelling that he had been stabbed.”

Once an officer arrived, he “performed life-saving measures until the ambulance arrived and took over.” The ambulance took Williams to Bingham Memorial Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Officers state in court documents that when they entered the apartment building, they found a “large kitchen knife” with “blood stains on it” halfway up the stairs. Williams was at the top of the staircase in the building.

There were “several large pools of blood” next to the railing and “several smaller pools of blood throughout the hallway leading up to (the apartment),” according to the police report.

Officers obtained a search warrant for the apartment and did a sweep to check for anyone inside but did not find anybody. Once inside the apartment, officers say there were blood stains on the bed and “cast off blood stains on the blinds over the window.”

“It appeared (Williams) was lying down on the bed when he received stab wounds on his back,” the police report says.

The landlord of the apartment building later provided surveillance footage to law enforcement which showed a timeline of events before and after the stabbing.

Earlier in the day, Williams and Perkes were seen coming into the apartment together. Approximately 32 minutes later, Perkes is seen exiting the apartment alone but four minutes later, she goes back into the apartment.

About an hour later, Williams is seen leaving the apartment and walking down the hallway with a knife in his hand. He makes it to the end of the hallway and collapses.

“As (Williams) collapses, it appears there is blood on the back of the shirt he is wearing,” the police report says.

Williams then begins “kicking at the apartment door he is by and appeared to be trying to get help.”

One minute later, Perkes is seen leaving the apartment “with no shoes on.” Officers say she “appeared to be leaving quickly.”

Police located Perkes in the neighborhood and took her to be interviewed. She refused to speak without a lawyer and officers say she had blood stains on her “right thigh area.”

Perkes was then booked into the Bingham County Jail and bond was set for $1 million.

Though Perkes has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean she committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.

Perkes is expected to appear in court on Nov. 17 for a preliminary hearing. If convicted, Perkes could face up to life in prison.