An abusive relationship in which a Dawson City woman consistently mistreated her boyfriend culminated in her stabbing the man in the chest last year, a territorial judge has concluded.

Kelly Vittrekwa had pleaded not guilty to assault with a weapon against Eric Thomasen in September 2012, despite having told police the day of the incident: "I shouldn't have used a knife ....”

In June in territorial court, Vittrekwa was found guilty. She received a one-year conditional sentence and one year of probation last week.

"(O)ne might be forgiven for wondering why Mr. Thomasen ... did not leave the relationship earlier,” Judge Donald Luther said in his ruling.

"However, it is hard to make a judgment on that when there is a young child involved, and when emotions are all over the map.”

The ruling did not state whether both Vittrekwa and Thomasen are the child's parents or whose custody the child is in.

The two were alone together on the night leading up to the incident in the early-morning hours of Sept. 23, 2012.

Thomasen, six inches taller and about 70 pounds heavier than his partner, was drunk and "had smoked at least a partial joint of marijuana, perhaps more ....” the judge said.

Vittrekwa had as well, but was not drinking.

Portentously, she had told a friend earlier in the day, "One of us is going to jail tonight,” referring to herself and Thomasen.

The friend told Thomasen, "If she assaults you again, see the charges through this time.”

She described him as an emotional wreck beforehand, "shaking and crying.”

Though the incident itself was not described vividly in the ruling, the judge said that "to suggest anyone other than the defendant stabbed Mr. Thomasen is imaginary or frivolous .... It is not as if someone came out of the blue and stabbed Mr. Thomasen.”

Vittrekwa's statement to the RCMP the day of the incident gave partial evidence to her guilt, the judge said.

She told police: "I even threatened him, saying ‘I'm gonna, I'm gonna put us both in jail if you don't stop drinking.' I guess, maybe that's what I maybe did.”

The court ruled out the idea that Thomasen attacked Vittrekwa.

"Indeed, all that I can really see from the relationship, fraught as it was with difficulties, was that Mr. Thomasen was guilty of poor relationship skills in terms of his pronounced drinking and not taking her out, not travelling with her and, generally, not making her feel special,” the judge said.

"But these are not crimes.”

Shortly after the incident, Thomasen said: "I don't want her to get into trouble, I love her.”

The judge said the stabbing was clearly not an accident, given "the type of wound, the amount of bleeding and the distress that Mr. Thomasen felt at the time, plus the pain that he felt for six to eight weeks afterwards ....”

The judge tacked on a three-year firearms ban to Vittrekwa's probation and conditional sentence — to be served within the community.