INDIANAPOLIS — Billie Davis has pleaded to violating federal hate crime laws in an attack on an IU student in January of 2023.
According to her plea agreement, her sentence would likely be at least five years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 3.
Davis told police that she stabbed the 18-year-old student because she thought she was Chinese. She told a passenger on the bus that the student would blow up the bus because she was Asian.
The student, from Carmel, told police she was waiting for the doors of the bus to open when Davis hit her repeatedly in the head, which caused her to bleed. Police responded to the scene, and the victim was transported to the hospital.
While at the hospital for treatment, doctors found multiple stab wounds on her head.
Davis was stabbing her in the head with a knife. She stabbed the student seven to ten times.
Another passenger on the bus followed Davis as they got off the bus and gave police updates on her location. Davis was arrested and booked into the Monroe County Jail.
Investigators got camera footage from inside the bus, showing Davis and the victim had no interactions before the assault happened.
Davis was facing state charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery with a deadly weapon. But in May of 2023, the state dropped those charges to help speed up Davis's federal case.
A report released from the San Francisco based group Stop AAPI Hate found 11,400 AANHPI people self-reported they had been a victim of a hate crime. 17% of those incidents included physical violence, 16% included avoidance or shunning, and 12% included possible civil rights violations.
AANHPI community leaders in Bloomington condemned the "hate-based" attack, and urged university leaders to fight against the "disease" of hate crimes against AANHPI students.