Police arrest man accused of stabbing girlfriend multiple times in motel room

Woman in stable condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital after stabbed 8 times

BAYTOWN, Texas – Police have arrested a 29-year-old man accused of stabbing his girlfriend multiple times in their motel room before stealing her car and driving off.

The incident happened around 3 a.m. Saturday at the EconoLodge on Garth Road and Harbor Mist in Baytown.

On surveillance video, 29-year-old Christopher Kemp and 32-year-old Mary Butler are seen checking into the EconoLodge around 1 a.m. Saturday. Kemp appeared to be carrying beer and a guitar.

"They had went to the casino in Louisiana, came back and had gotten a room," said Det. Brian Parker with Baytown police. "He told his friend that they had been using prescription pills, and she was going to leave and have a friend pick her up. That infuriated him, which caused him to go into a rage where he ended up stabbing her."

The video shows Kemp leaving the motel around 3 a.m. by himself before he jumped into Butler's blue Toyota Solara and took off.

"He fled and drove to a friend's house in Mont Belvieu, where he had talked to them, confessed to them and told them, 'I stabbed a girl in Baytown and I am not sure if she is dead or not,'" said Parker. "They made him leave the residence."

Authorities said Butler was able to call police from inside the motel room. When officers arrived, police said they found her stabbed eight times with a pocket knife.

"She was unresponsive but they could see that she had blood all over her body," said Parker. "Officers had to make a forced entry because she could not respond to the door."

Butler was flown by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital. She is currently in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery.

Police said Parker was arrested Saturday around 3:20 p.m. in Richland Parish, La. Deputies responded to a call for a reckless vehicle, the blue Toyota Solara, on I-20, which went into a farming field.

Deputies said Parker still had on the clothes from the stabbing. Those clothes will be kept, police said, as evidence.

Harris County deputies said they may pick him up sometime in the middle of the week.