CONCORD, N.C. -- A woman stabbed her husband to death with a kitchen knife in the couple’s front yard, Concord police said Monday.

Mary Edith O’Neal, 37, is now charged with first-degree murder.

Police said O’Neal called 911 shortly before 1:30 a.m. and said she found 31-year-old Carlton Eugene Smith stabbed, lying in the yard near their home on Tulsa Court Northwest.

“The crime scene revealed some things to us,” said Deputy Chief Guy Smith. “The interviews with her and the children (inside the home), all things together, helped us put the pieces together and it just didn't appear to happen the way she initially said.”

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Investigators said what actually happened was the couple began arguing earlier in the evening and it escalated. They said O’Neal stabbed Smith in the chest with a kitchen knife and left him bleeding in the front yard while she called 911.

Firefighters and paramedics arrived and tried to save the man, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Carolinas Medical Center-Northeast.

Officers said O’Neal’s teenaged children were home at the time. They said they have been called to the house several times for domestic problems.

It’s those problems that have Bill Haire, a former neighbor, saying he believes O’Neal was only defending herself.

“I don't think she had a choice at all. I think that was her last resort. I'm sorry that it happened; I'm sure that she'll be punished, but Miss Mary is not a first-degree murderer. She probably defended herself,” he said.

Investigators said Smith had an extensive arrest history that includes assault charges, but they are still working to determine if any of those were related to his wife.

O’Neal is being held in the Cabarrus County jail without bond. She’ll make her first court appearance on Tuesday.