Fresno woman accused of killing another woman over cats and dogs

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno police have arrested a suspect who they say is responsible for stabbing a woman to death outside her Central Fresno home last week.

Detectives say the confrontation began when the victim expressed her concern about the suspect's pit bull being near her cats.

Laquandra Kinchen lived just down the street from the neighborhood where she was walking with her two kids and her dog last week. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Kinchen got into an argument with Mary Lara in front of Lara's home, but it quickly turned into an attack.

An autopsy showed Lara was stabbed 14 times.

Police said a witness was able to get a partial license plate number from the getaway car, and then a neighbor's surveillance cameras captured the murder on tape. But Chief Dyer said one of their first clues was what the suspect did with her dog, "And the fact that she let the pit bull go, which led them to believe that it would return back home, which the dog did because when Laquandry Kinchen was arrested for the murder the pit bull was in the backyard."

Officers say it doesn't appear Kinchen tried to hide after the murder. She was still in and out of her home as detectives surveilled it during the investigation. When she was arrested, neighbors said police also towed away the car from their garage, which they say, was the getaway car.

Kinchen's husband, Thurman Ligons, was also arrested for assaulting a witness and being an accessory to murder.

The couple's two children were taken away. "There's a two-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl that were living at the residence and present at the time of the stabbing. They have both been placed with CPS and we will be conducting an interview with the nine-year-old later this week," said Dyer.

Kinchen is set to be arraigned Wednesday on charges of murder.