Laura Chavez stabs Clyde "Butch" Smith over Monopoly game cheating

Laura Chavez in her Santa Fe County Jail booking photo. (Santa Fe County Jail)

If there ever was an anti-Family Game Night campaign, last Tuesday would have been the ultimate example. In a scene straight out of a Hasbro nightmare, 60-year-old Laura Chavez (right) allegedly attacked her 48-year-old boyfriend Clyde "Butch" Smith after accusing him of cheating during a round of Monopoly, according to ABC News.

It all started when Chavez, Smith, and Chavez's 10-year-old grandson were playing a late night round of the classic board game at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. According to The Santa Fe New Mexican, the boy told police Chavez and Smith began fighting when she accused him of cheating. The boy was sent to bed, and that's when the blood shed began, according to The Smoking Gun.


The Smoking Gun explains that Chavez proceeded to hit Smith on the head with a glass bottle, then used a butcher knife to stab his head, neck, face, and wrists.


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When police arrived on the scene, it was to an apartment bathed with blood, according to the probable cause statement drafted by Detective Andrew Quintana:

Do not pass Go and go directly to Jail, Chavez.
Photo courtesy of Mark Strozier

According to ABC News, police reported that Smith was in stable condition and had been hospitalized at St. Vincent's Hospital, where he had been taken after the attack.

Chavez was taken into custody and accused of aggravated battery on a household member with a deadly weapon, battery upon a peace officer, assault upon a peace officer and resisting or evading a police officer, according to the New Mexican.

When questioned on why Chavez was charged with attacking police officers, Lt. Adan Mendoza responded by saying:

"The suspect was highly intoxicated and uncooperative. She was brought back for questioning to the Sheriff's Office where she proceeded to fight with Deputies until she could be controlled. No Deputies were injured in the altercation."

Although the nature of the cheating has not been verified, according to Lt. Mendoza there was an additional argument over one party hiding a vodka bottle from the other.

Lt. Adan Mendoza of the Santa Fe Sheriff's office
(video still from KOAT-TV's youtube video)

"Both parties were highly intoxicated and both cannot even remember what part of the argument started the violence," Mendoza said in an email.

KOAT-TV reports that Chavez's twin brother claims she has mental disabilities, and that she must have been off her medications, or mixing her meds with alcohol.

According to ABC, Mendoza was held on a $5000 bond.