New Castle Woman, 48, Charged With Cutting Wife With Knife in Domestic Attack

A 48-year-old Greensboro woman is facing two felony charges after she allegedly cut her wife with a knife during a domestic incident that led to her arrest early Wednesday morning in New Castle, Indiana. Fredrika L. Houston was booked on charges of domestic battery with a deadly weapon and intimidation, both Level 5 felonies under Indiana law.

According to The Star Press, Houston was arrested in the early morning hours of Aug. 26 after allegedly cutting her wife with a knife. Henry County prosecutors formally filed the charges the following day, on Aug. 27. Houston lives in Greensboro, a small Henry County community located southwest of New Castle, per the same report.

How the Charges Reached Felony Level

Standard domestic battery in Indiana is typically charged as a Class A misdemeanor, but the offense is elevated to a Level 5 felony when it's committed against a family or household member using a deadly weapon, according to FindLaw's summary of Indiana Code § 35-42-2-1.3. The intimidation charge followed a similar path to felony status: under Indiana Code § 35-45-2-1, intimidation escalates from a misdemeanor to a Level 5 felony when a person draws or uses a deadly weapon while communicating a threat, as explained by Gemma & Karimi.

Both charges carry significant potential prison exposure. A Level 5 felony conviction in Indiana carries a fixed sentence ranging from one to six years, with an advisory sentence of three years, along with fines of up to $10,000, per Indiana Code § 35-50-2-6 as outlined by FindLaw. Since Houston faces two separate Level 5 felony counts, her total exposure could reach up to six years per count if she is convicted on both.

A Small Town and a County Seat

Greensboro, where Houston resides, is a tiny rural community with an estimated 2026 population of just 127 residents spread across roughly 0.11 square miles, according to World Population Review. New Castle, where the arrest took place, serves as the seat of Henry County, a county of roughly 48,000 residents where felony cases are prosecuted by the Henry County Prosecutor's Office, per Hammond Legal. Formal court proceedings in the case will likely play out at the Henry County courthouse at 1215 Race Street in New Castle, which houses the county's Circuit and Superior Courts.

Public marriage license records from neighboring Hancock County show that Houston was issued a marriage license in Greenfield, Indiana, in April 2017, to Tamara A. Smith, according to a 2017 report from The Daily Reporter. It is not clear from available records whether the woman named in that record is the same wife involved in this week's alleged attack.

What Remains Unknown

Several key details about the case have not yet been made public. The current physical condition of Houston's wife, whether a protective order has been issued, and Houston's current bail status or the schedule for her initial hearing in New Castle all remain open questions. Once arrested on felony charges, individuals in Henry County are booked into the Henry County Jail in New Castle, which is integrated with Indiana's Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification system, or SAVIN, which issues automated alerts to crime victims if an inmate is released or transferred, according to HenryINRecords.us.

A Statewide Pattern of Strained Resources

The case lands amid broader concern over Indiana's capacity to respond to domestic violence. Statewide data from the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence showed that regional service agencies turned away 68 percent of shelter requests in 2025 — a total of 3,427 survivors — because of resource constraints, as reported by TheStatehouseFile.com.

State lawmakers have taken some legislative steps in response. During Indiana's 2026 legislative session, lawmakers introduced House Bill 1299 to establish a state domestic violence offender registry, following a failed 2025 effort to require GPS monitoring for domestic violence suspects released on bail, according to WTHR. As Houston's case moves through Henry County's court system, it adds one more data point to a state still debating how far the law should reach to protect domestic violence victims before, not just after, an attack occurs.