Swain County Woman Sentenced To 10 Years For Killing Her Husband

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Pattie Sue Bradley, 43, of Cherokee, N.C. and an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for killing her husband, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.  U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger also sentenced Bradley to three years of supervised release following her prison term.

U.S. Attorney Rose is joined in making today’s announcement by John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, and Chief James Dike Sneed of the Cherokee Indian Police Department (CIPD).

According to the information to which Bradley pleaded guilty, other documents filed in this case and statements made in court, on or about January 13, 2015, in Swain County, in Indian Country, that is within the boundaries of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reservation, Bradley stabbed and killed her husband, Henry Bradley, also an Indian.  Court records show that CIPD arrived at the Bradleys’ residence in response to a 911 call.   When the responding officer asked Pattie Bradley about what had occurred, Bradley told him that another individual had tried to break into the house and she had cut him with a knife. 

According to court records, the officer then noticed that the victim was sitting and passed out on the couch inside the couple’s home.  The officer also observed that the victim’s hands were covered with blood.  Pattie Bradley stated that the victim had a cut on his hand but when emergency technicians arrived at the scene they determined that the victim had actually been stabbed once in the abdomen.  The victim was transported to the hospital, where he later died.  On January 14, 2015, CIPD interviewed Pattie Bradley who told the officers that on the night of the incident she and the victim had been drinking and arguing, and she admitted to stabbing the victim over the course of the argument.  

Bradley pleaded guilty on October 23, 2015 to one count of assault with intent to commit murder.  She is currently in custody and upon designation of a federal facility she will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

The FBI and CIPD investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney John Pritchard prosecuted the case.