INDIANAPOLIS — A Bloomington woman has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for a racially motivated stabbing of an 18-year-old Indiana University student of Chinese descent, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Billie Davis, 57, pleaded guilty to committing a federal hate crime after attacking the victim on a Bloomington Transit bus on January 11, 2023. According to court documents, Davis stabbed the victim in the head approximately seven to ten times with a folding knife as the student stood to exit the bus. The victim, who suffered multiple stab wounds requiring medical attention, survived the attack.
Witnesses told police that Davis remained seated on the bus after the stabbing until confronted by other passengers. When she exited the bus, she continued to use racial slurs and told police she attacked the victim because of her Chinese descent, claiming the victim posed a threat and describing her as an “enemy.”
“This defendant targeted a young woman, who was simply riding a public bus to school, solely because she was Chinese,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The sentence imposed for these vicious hate crimes should send a strong message that perpetrators of hate-fueled violence will be held accountable.”
In addition to her prison sentence, Davis will serve three years of supervised release. The case, prosecuted under the Department of Justice’s hate crimes initiative, underscores a growing effort to combat bias-related violence amid an increase in attacks targeting people of Asian descent.
“The serious federal prison sentence imposed here should demonstrate our commitment to stopping this hate,” said U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers for the Southern District of Indiana. “Violent hate should have no safe harbor in Indiana or anywhere in our great country.”
