Court filings: stabbing for weed, money leads to murder charge

FORT WAYNE, Indiana (WANE) — When police arrived at Block 7900 of Decatur Road, they found the victim on the ground, who was not moving, according to an affidavit of probable cause, with a cut in his throat.

Less than 10 minutes later, despite the efforts of paramedics and firefighters, the victim was pronounced dead.

On Monday, Floyd Bates Jr., 58, was charged with murder and attempted murder. His victim, Margaret Surry, 34, died of stab wounds to his neck and torso, according to the Allen County Coroner.

Police obtained the video, which showed Bates stalking Surry while armed with a large knife in his right hand and making multiple attempts to stab her at 2:32 a.m. Friday. Escaping, she falls to the ground and leans her back against the wall, raising her leg and arm and begging Floyd not to attack her, according to an affidavit by homicide detective Luke MacDonald.

The video shows Bates standing over her and holding her with his left arm and stabbing her once in the neck area with his right arm, court documents said. Bates goes back to his apartment while Surry gets up, holds her neck and walks away to get help

Before the stabbing, one of the witnesses said she had heard arguments but that it was not uncommon to hear such things. She became even more concerned when she heard the victim yell, “He was the one who tried to punch my ass!” She said she didn’t look out of her apartment until the victim was already on the ground and being helped by a neighbor became.

According to the probable cause, both Surry and Bates lived in separate apartments on the third floor.

Another witness said Surry had an argument with another woman and Bates was the other woman’s boyfriend. She saw Surry come around the corner, holding her neck and begging for help before losing consciousness and hitting her head on the ground as she fell, court documents say.

Shortly after Surry’s stabbing was reported, officers discovered that another victim, a man, was suffering from multiple stab wounds in the other apartment building and determined that the two incidents were linked. The male victim, Surry’s father, was taken to a local hospital in a non-life-threatening condition, according to court documents.

When questioned at the hospital, he told police he was Surry’s father and went to her apartment after she told him she had been attacked by a woman named Lasandra.

When her father went to her apartment, she told him she had just been hit by “that guy”. She described what he was wearing, his age and said he had a gray beard.

Surry’s father then said the guy walked up to his daughter and had a knife in his hand, so he tried to get his daughter out of there, court documents say.

Her father said the guy “tried to stab Margaret” and that he tried to stop him and was stabbed himself in the process.

Bates’ friend told MacDonald that she got into a physical altercation with Margaret because Margaret owed her money. She portrayed Bates as the one “just trying to protect her from getting attacked by three guys” who were dating Surry.

When Bates’ girlfriend left the altercation, she said she thought “Jr., aka Floyd, would bring out the best in them,” and she walked away because she had already done her part. She claimed she did not witness the stab, but Floyd told her he would go to jail and “have a nice life” for her.

For his part, Bates said he woke up to hear his girlfriend arguing. He said he opened his apartment door to see Surry “banging a warning sign at his girlfriend so he could put his sneakers on real quick” and came out of his apartment to see another man hit her on the head. He “just snapped,” he said, laying his hands on both of them.

Bates said it was a fight over “weed,” another word for marijuana.

Floyd said when he went to Surry and her father he defended himself.

When asked why he pulled out a knife, he told investigators he didn’t know. He said he had the knife in his pocket and when the men kept swinging with Surry he was like “shit”. Bates said he had two people with him and he fumbled for his knife, pulled it out and “hit” them with it. He couldn’t remember who he met first.

He then said he got rid of the knife and couldn’t remember where he threw it. It was a kitchen knife that he had in his pocket while he was sleeping.

Bates is being held without bail in the Allen County Jail. His next court hearing is Thursday.