Gilbert L. “Duke” Thomas stabbed and cut his mother so viciously that the blade of the kitchen knife he used broke off at the handle and protruded from the left side of her neck. But Thomas, then 22, dutifully placed a blanket over his dying mother, her arms and hands covered with defensive wounds, before wandering away in February last year from the Henrico County apartment they shared.

Gilbert L. “Duke” Thomas stabbed and cut his mother so viciously that the blade of the kitchen knife he used broke off at the handle and protruded from the left side of her neck. But Thomas, then 22, dutifully placed a blanket over his dying mother, her arms and hands covered with defensive wounds, before wandering away in February last year from the Henrico County apartment they shared.

Three members of the notorious MS-13 gang pleaded guilty yesterday to stabbing a man and leaving him for dead inside a Hispanic nightclub in Chesterfield County last fall. One of the victim’s five stab wounds to the chest punctured his heart in the Oct. 18 attack inside a restroom at Valentino’s restaurant on Jefferson Davis Highway. The victim, who they mistakenly believed was their bitter rival, nearly died.

A 42-year-old man was in serious condition after a stabbing Friday night in the 2600 block of Broad Rock Boulevard. Richmond police believe Vinson Gosha was injured after a confrontation with three men about 11:40 p.m. One man was taken into custody in connection with the assault, but police are looking for others, said Richmond police Capt. Linda Samuel.

A Richmond man who assaulted his estranged wife, fatally stabbed her dog and tried to escape police by swimming across the James River will serve five years in prison. Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley B. Cavedo yesterday sentenced Dacia Q. Smith, 28, to one year each for three misdemeanor charges: violating a protective order and two counts of domestic assault and battery.

A Dinwiddie County jury seemed to have little doubt yesterday about the guilt of a mother accused of drugging and stabbing to death her young son in the family’s bathtub in 2006. After a two-day trial that included testimony from 20 witnesses, the jurors deliberated a little more than an hour before convicting Julie E. Futrell of first-degree murder in the Thanksgiving slaying of 6-year-old Shawn A. Futrell.

A Dinwiddie County woman fatally stabbed her 6-year-old son after learning that her husband had left her and wouldn’t agree to sign away his rights to their child, a prosecutor charged yesterday. Although no clear motive was established yesterday in the Nov. 24, 2006, slaying of Shawn A. Futrell, prosecution witnesses testified that Julie E. Futrell was deeply distraught and scared after learning her husband had essentially moved out of their Dinwiddie home two days before Thanksgiving.

Police have arrested a man wanted in connection with Monday’s fatal stabbing of Troy Kenneth Ferguson in Richmond’s Highland Park area. Officers with the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s Public Safety Division arrested Covey Terrell Birchett, 30, at Second and Leigh streets in Jackson Ward, near Gilpin Court, yesterday afternoon. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Police are looking for a man suspected in a fatal stabbing yesterday afternoon in North Richmond. Covey Terrell Birchett, 30, is being sought in the 3:30 p.m. slaying of a man in the 3100 block of Fifth Avenue, just east of Meadowbridge Road. Police said Birchett is known to frequent the North Highland Park and Gilpin Court areas. Birchett is described as about 5-foot-4 with a heavy build.

A preacher who was beaten and stabbed in his church in Henrico County on Saturday morning was released from the hospital last night. The Rev. James Bullock, pastor of First Free Will Baptist Church on Hungary Road, was practicing his singing Saturday morning when two men barged into his office, said Brenda McPeak, a church representative.

Keiona Braxton’sfuneral is scheduled for Thursday at 11 a.m. in the March Funeral Home, 2110 E. Laburnum Ave. Henrico County search warrants suggest that 26-year-old Keiona Cecilia Tiree Braxton, three months pregnant according to her family, died a horrible death New Year’s Eve morning. While the state medical examiner’s office said yesterday that no official determination has been made as to what killed Braxton, documents tied to a search warrant suggest that the woman may have been shot, stabbed and left to perish in an arson fire.