Pregnant Cedar Rapids woman says she fatally stabbed father during fight

CEDAR RAPIDS — A pregnant Cedar Rapids woman is accused of fatally stabbing the father of her unborn child and another child last month after initially saying she heard him calling for help, opened the back door and found him with a stab wound, so she called 911.

When police arrived at 1258 15th St. SE on Jan. 24, they made contact with Charmisha Pirtle, 30, who said she had a child with Anthony Fitts, 29, of Cedar Rapids, and was pregnant with another child, according to criminal complaint. She also said she and Fitts “always argue but we never fight” and admitted arguing with him recently when Fitts told her he was done with her.

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A witness who lived nearby told an investigator that she heard a male voice calling for “help” and a female voice saying “You’re not leaving me” at the time of the stabbing.

Surveillance video showed a person, later identified as Fitts, stumbling out the back door and falling backward into a pile of snow that was later found “saturated” in blood. Pirtle then came out the back door following Fitts.

Fitts got up and continued walking along the back of the townhomes, around to the front of the building where he collapsed, the complaint stated.

Officers found a kitchen knife in the sink, which tested positive for blood on its wood handle.

According to a preliminary autopsy report, the fatal stab wound to Fitts was in the upper left side of his chest that penetrated “skin, muscle, rib cage and a lung, a criminal complaint stated. He also had stab wounds to his left pelvic area, his left hand and right knee.

Fitts died at the hospital shortly after the incident, according to the complaint.

An investigator contacted Pirtle, who wasn’t immediately arrested, over the phone a few days later to notify her he was working on the case. During that conversation, Pirtle told him she was going to be “100 percent honest” and admitted to stabbing Fitts with the kitchen knife found in the sink, but she said the stabbing happened during a physical fight between the two and she had injuries.

Officers couldn’t confirm any injuries on Pirtle, according to the complaint. She also told the investigator it was the “worst decision she’s ever made in her life” and knew what she did was wrong.

Pirtle was arrested Friday and charged with second-degree murder, a felony, and domestic abuse assault — first offense with dangerous weapon, an aggravated misdemeanor.

Pirtle was convicted in 2014 for two charges of second-degree harassment for threatening two women with a small knife, and in 2019 for assaulting another woman, according to Iowa court records.

She remains in the Linn County Jail under a $500,000 cash bail. If convicted of the murder charge, she faces up to 50 years in prison.

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