Burlington ? A man was justified in killing his wife’s former husband when he burst into their home and attacked them with a knife and will not face charges, Coffey County Atty. Douglas Witteman said.

Theodore D. Schmidt, 62, of rural Hartford, came to the home of Delano and Linda Nixon on July 24 after fatally stabbing his girlfriend, Lisa Ragsdale, 35, at her home.

Witteman said Ragsdale was trying to end her relationship with Schmidt, and that he killed her by cutting her throat with a paring knife. Schmidt then drove to the home of the Nixons, who married a year after her 1991 divorce from Schmidt.

The prosecutor said the Nixons were awakened at 7:30 a.m. by the sound of their front door being kicked in, and Linda Nixon told her husband she thought it must be Schmidt, recently released from prison.

Witteman said Delano Nixon grabbed a single-shot shotgun that he kept in his bedroom. When he encountered Schmidt at the door of the bedroom, Nixon was knocked aside and suffered a knife wound across the chest, the prosecutor said.

Witteman said Schmidt attacked Linda Nixon with a knife and threatened to kill her as she reached across the bed for the telephone. Witteman said Delano Nixon struck Schmidt twice with the shotgun in trying to stop the attack, with Linda Nixon suffering defensive wounds to her hands and a life-threatening slash to her throat.

Witteman said Delano Nixon ended the attack by fatally shooting Schmidt in the rib cage at close range. Linda Nixon was cut across the chest when Schmidt swung the knife toward her as he fell, Witteman said. Linda Nixon has recovered from her injuries.

Witteman said Schmidt had been physically and emotionally abusive to his wife during the marriage and that after their divorce he tried to hire a person to kill her. The hitman-for-hire turned out to be an undercover agent. Schmidt was convicted of solicitation of first-degree murder in Lyon County in 1993. He was released from prison in May.