Murder defendant Kaitlyn Ritcherson, 19, charged in the stabbing death of 21-year-old Huston-Tillotson student and track team member Fatima Barrie, will be allowed to leave Austin to spend Mother’s Day with her grandmother in Smith County, a judge ruled Thursday.
Ritcherson’s attorney, Charlie Baird, sought the approval of 331st District Judge David Crain by promising that Ritcherson’s mother, Pat Ritcherson, would accompany her daughter for the one-day visit to Northeast Texas. “She’s been compliant and has met all her bond conditions and is under electric monitoring,” Baird said outside the courtroom.
Following the judge’s approval, which was also approved by the prosecution, Ritcherson, accompanied by family members, sat in the audience of the court, smiled, wiped tears from her face and began reading a small book. A pretrial hearing on her case is set for June 15.
She is charged in the death of Barrie resulting from a stabbing outside a downtown night club Dec. 4. According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Barrie and a friend turned to leave but the friend felt someone grab her hair and turned around to see Ritcherson with a knife in her hand. A third friend pulled them back, but as they walked away, Barrie fell to the ground bleeding. Barrie, a junior biology major, died Dec. 21 from her injuries.
Barrie, from Katy, had been recognized as an All-American runner by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and was twice named to the All-Red River Conference team.
