BRECKENRIDGE HILLS, Mo. _ Cameka Cathey had been arrested twice by police in St. Louis County just days before police say she fatally stabbed a stranger inside a dollar store Tuesday _ and, if the officers who arrested her had applied for warrants against her, her victim might still be alive, said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch.
Cathey, 34, of Memphis, Tenn., in jailed on first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges in the attack that left Marybeth Gaeng, 65, dead at the Family Dollar Store.
St. Ann police arrested Cathey on Saturday after Chief Aaron Jimenez said she fled from his officers investigating a call about a suspicious vehicle at a library. He said his officers released her about four hours later while they applied for a warrant with McCulloch's office.
After her release from St. Ann, Cathey allegedly stole a car from a Breckenridge Hills auto shop and that car was tracked to a gas station in Bridgeton. Breckenridge Hills police then arrested and released her, said Police Chief John Griffin.
"She got arrested for possession of stolen property, she was in a stolen car," Griffin said. "That was a misdemeanor case and she was released pending warrant application."
Jimenez blamed the warrant policy at the prosecutor's office for his department's decision to release Cathey. He said McCulloch's office does not prioritize warrants for car thefts or pursuits unless there is a violent crime involved.
"That is the warrant system in St. Louis County," Jimenez said. "Unless there is a violent crime or serious injury involved they don't issue warrants right away.
"This right here is exactly what happens when we're not able to get warrants issued right away. Hopefully something will change with the new PA (prosecuting attorney) coming in."
McCulloch called Jimenez a "liar" during an interview Thursday.
No one from Jimenez's department applied for warrants against Cathey on Saturday, McCulloch said. He said he has a prosecutor on duty 24 hours a day seven days a week every day of the year so police officers can apply for warrants when they have someone in custody, even on nonviolent offenses.
The two have clashed publicly before over Jimenez's police pursuit policy, which allows officers to pursue anyone who runs from them for any reason. McCulloch favors policies that most police departments abide by that require police to only pursue for violent felony offenses.
"No other police departments seem to have a problem," McCulloch said.
"The fact of the matter is, (Jimenez) would rather chase somebody up and down Natural Bridge than deal with a woman who is clearly suffering some sort of severe psychiatric episode," McCulloch said. "All he had to do is book her, apply for warrants and somebody here would have issued it.
"There would have been a fit-for-confinement exam, which includes physical and psychiatric exams and that would get her the help she needed and (Gaeng) could have completed her Christmas shopping at the dollar store this week."
While the run-ins in the St. Louis area during the weekend appear to be Cathey's only criminal charges in Missouri, she has a lengthy record in Tennessee.
Her record in Memphis includes a stack of driving and traffic violations, but also contains several more serious charges including several assault charges.
In May 2013 Cathey faced a domestic assault charge for allegedly punching the father of her child in the face outside of a courtroom.
In June 2013, she was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon after threatening a clerk at a Family Dollar store and attempting to come across the counter while carrying an 8-inch butcher knife, court records say.
Later that same month she was charged with criminal exposure to HIV when she was being unruly in a courtroom and scratched a law enforcement officer and stated she was HIV positive.
Other assault charges against Cathey for attacks against her sister and the father of her child go back to 2005. In April 2006 Cathey threatened to cut the father of her child in his side with a pocket knife.
What brought Cathey to St. Louis is unclear.
Cedric Bolton of Memphis said he corresponded with her through Facebook after they discovered they had several friends in common.
"She would call me up to say she was stranded somewhere with her four kids," he said. "She would tell me what hotel they were at, but I would never go to meet her because she was a stranger to me."
The last time he talked to Cathey was about six months ago.
He said he was shocked about the crime she is accused of committing, and did not know why she was in St. Louis.
