COURTLAND—A Franklin woman entered an Alford plea in Southampton County Circuit Court Thursday for stabbing the father of her three children.

Appreal Flood, 25, will be sentenced Sept. 1 for unlawful wounding, which can carry a maximum five years in prison.

The charge stems from an incident on Aug. 12 at Dorchester Apartments in Franklin where Flood allegedly stabbed Shawn Butts, Commonwealth Attorney Eric Cooke said.

Cooke said in court the altercation started when Flood came home to find three women running from Butts’ apartment. Butts said she stabbed him with a knife in the chest as a result of the altercation.

Flood maintains she stabbed him while she angrily flailed her keys around and did not admit guilt, but admitted that she would probably be found guilty once evidence was presented in the case, leading to the Alford plea.

Butts was treated at Southampton Memorial Hospital in Franklin for stab wounds.