Bristol Man Who Stabbed Estranged Wife Gets 22-46 Years: DA

BRISTOL, PA — A Bristol man who pleaded guilty to charges including attempted homicide and burglary after attacking his estranged wife last August has been sentenced to 22 - 46 years in state prison.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced 44-year-old Walter Joseph Vandoren Jr. of Bristol Township Thursday, saying "if you wanted to commit suicide by cop, that's fine" and reprimanding him for trying to kill another in the process.

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Bristol Borough Police had been dispatched at 6 a.m. on Aug. 3 to Buckley Street, after receiving multiple 911 calls of a domestic assault where the victim was screaming for help. When officers arrived, they found Vandoren armed with a knife and on top of his estranged wife, who was screaming and covered in blood. They broke through a locked fence to help her, tasing Vandoren twice.

Police took him into custody, recovering two knives on his person. He was charged with attempted homicide, burglary, criminal trespass, simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime, terroristic threats, and criminal mischief. He pleaded guilty to these charges in May.

The victim was bleeding profusely from multiple stab wounds and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. Investigation found that she had been separated from Vandoren for a year, and she had an active Protection from Abuse order against him.

Vandoren had been sending her angry texts for several days prior to the attack until she blocked his number.

On Aug. 3, she was in her backyard with a friend when Vandoren jumped the fence. She and her friend ran inside the house and locked the door, but Vandoren chased them, punched open a window and unlocked the door. He continued to chase them, and they tried to escape by climbing to the roof and through an upstairs window. Vandoren went after her friend, until the friend fell off the roof and injured himself.

The victim tried to hide inside her house — but Vandoren eventually returned, pushed in an air conditioning unit, and climbed back inside. He was armed with a butcher knife and chased her into the backyard, threatening to kill her, Deputy District Attorney Mary Kate Kohler said during Vandoren's guilty plea in May.

“He came at her at the side of the home as she screamed for help and he wrapped his left arm around her and started stabbing her twice in the side of her stomach with his other arm,” Kohler said. Her 8-year-old daughter witnessed the attack.

The victim tried to grab the knife to prevent Vandoren from stabbing her again, but he continued while making threats to kill her and then stabbed her in the chest. Kohler said he laid on top of her as she bled out repeatedly whispering in her ear “You are dead, you are going to die,” as their child looked on.

The victim was in critical condition for two weeks and was released after three weeks in the hospital. Her injuries required multiple surgeries and left her without the use of one of her hands and the removal of her spleen. Additionally, her diaphragm had been punctured — she has difficulty breathing to this day.

This case was investigated by the Bristol Borough Police Department and prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Mary Kate Kohler.

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