A Butler woman has rejected an offer to serve between 9 to 20 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to the June 2020 fatal stabbing of her boyfriend in their city apartment.

Assistant district attorney Robert Zanella told Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCune at a hearing Wednesday, Sept. 18, that Shaina A. Grush, 35, rejected the offer. McCune said he would schedule jury selection and a trial.

Grush attended the hearing remotely from the Butler County Prison where she has been held without bail since she was arrested the day after the June 14, 2020, incident.

Butler police charged Grush with homicide in the death of her boyfriend 43-year-old Robert Wagner, who was stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife in their apartment on West Jefferson Street.

Police said a 37-year-old man who was friends with Wagner was in the apartment, located above China Palace restaurant, and witnessed the stabbing.

The witness told police the couple was arguing when Grush pulled a knife with an 8-inch blade out of the kitchen drawer and then allegedly thrust it into the left side of Wagner's chest, police said.

Wagner grabbed his chest and collapsed onto the floor in front of the bathroom.

Grush called 911 at 2:05 a.m. Butler Bureau of Fire and Butler Ambulance Service medics treated Wagner, who was still breathing when he was transported by ambulance to Butler Memorial Hospital, authorities said.

Wagner was pronounced dead about 2:40 a.m. in the hospital’s emergency room. An autopsy determined Wagner died of a stab wound to the chest, according to the Butler County Coroner’s office.

The wound was about 6.5 inches deep and 1 inch in width, investigators said. The knife penetrated Wagner’s lung.

Police said when officers arrived at the apartment, they found Grush and her 11-year-old son. Wagner’s friend was not there.

Grush denied knowing how Wagner was stabbed. She claimed she was in the bathroom at the time. She also told police that she did not know the other man’s last name.

Police executed a search warrant at the apartment and reported finding blood on the hardwood floor in front of the bathroom and recovering the suspected knife, which was in the kitchen sink with “fresh blood on the blade,” according to court documents.

Police said the 911 call that Grush made contains the voice of a man believed to be Wagner’s saying, “I love you.” The caller answered, “I love you too.”