A Caldwell woman admitted Wednesday she scalped a 15-year-old girl at Kirkham Hot Springs last winter, but said she only meant to cut off the girl's mohawk.
Marianne Dahle's lawyer said the 26-year-old's mental health problems, combined with substance abuse "fueled her bad decisions."
"The things that you said happened, but it was not intentional," Dahle quietly told 4th District Judge Kathryn Sticklen as she pleaded guilty to aggravated battery Wednesday, the day her trial was scheduled to begin.
Defense attorney Kathy Edwards said Dahle planned to shave the victim's mohawk, but forgot to bring a razor with her. So she used a knife instead.
"(Dahle) understands that she bears responsibility," Edwards said. "She wants to acknowledge what she did ... and spare the victim from going through a trial."
The 15-year-old victim and her mother did not attend the hearing and were not available for comment Wednesday.
Dahle, shackled and dressed in a black and white striped Gem County Jail jumpsuit, appeared slightly nervous throughout Wednesday's hearing and answered Sticklen's questions with quiet but clear "yes, your honor" and "no, your honor" responses. When asked for her plea, she paused, then said "guilty."
She appeared to be in better spirits before and after the hearing, talking freely with her parents. When she left the courtroom she waved to her parents and said "I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad."
Edwards said after the hearing she is trying to get Dahle moved from the Gem County Jail to the Ada County Jail, so her client can take advantage of substance abuse programs and meet with the LDS group there. Edwards also said there was no plea agreement reached with prosecutors.
Dahle has a history of mental health problems and was not on her prescribed medication or receiving any treatment at the time of the scalping.
Dahle told Judge Sticklen she is currently receiving medication, but that did not affect her ability to understand what was going on or her decision to enter a guilty plea.
The "scalper" case attracted widespread attention when the story broke in February, with coverage appearing on national and international Web sites and newspapers.
Boise County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Bill Braddock said earlier this year that the scalping was Dahle's revenge over "a personal slight" and that she felt the 15-year-old "acted in a way disrespectful towards women."
Dahle reportedly took the teen and another girl, who was 16, to the hot springs to party on the night of Jan. 18. Once they got there, Dahle is accused of tying up the girl, grabbing the back of her head and slicing off a large portion of the back and top of her scalp, according Boise County sheriff's reports.
Edwards said Wednesday that Dahle tied up the victim as part of a "gang culture" thing. She said Dahle and the 16-year-old suspected the victim lied to them about "something important," so they were going to cut off her mohawk for retribution. The other girl has not been charged in the case; Braddock said Wednesday she was a cooperative witness and investigators determined Dahle was responsible for the scalping.
Dahle and the teens belonged to the same social circle at the time, Edwards said, but she did not say what the suspected lie was about.
After the scalping, Dahle drove the girl back to Boise and abandoned her at St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, where she was hospitalized for several days after the attack, Braddock said.
Deputies found the sliced-off scalp later that night by a hot springs pool, but doctors could not reattach it, he said.
The girl's mother said earlier that the original wound was about 6 inches by 8 inches. Skin grafts have restored some of her scalp, and the girl continues to receive treatment, but a significant portion of the wound area still has no hair, her mother said. The girl wears hats to cover the wound but still feels self-conscious around other people, her mother said.
The Boise County Sheriff's Office did not release information about the attack until early February, about two weeks after the incident, because the victim and the other teen who witnessed the scalping were afraid of Dahle and of being ostracized by their friends.
Dahle turned herself in at the Ada County Jail after a series of media reports identified her as the only suspect in the case.
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