Kristen Danielle Howard, 32, now of Killeen, Texas, and her co-defendant, Oshaya Inez Watkins, 21, of Minot, have both entered into pre-trial diversion agreements for 360 days on Class C felony conspiracy to commit burglary and Class C felony conspiracy to commit aggravated assault charges. If both women comply with all terms and conditions, the charges will then be dismissed.

The women had been accused of conspiring, based on a cheating allegation, to spike another woman’s drink in the hope that she would then fail a drug test at her work site.

North Central District Court Judge Stacy Louser had originally dismissed all the charges against the woman in October 2020 after deciding there wasn’t enough evidence for the case to proceed, but the Ward County State’s Attorney’s Office appealed her decision to the Supreme Court, which ruled in June that Louser shouldn’t have dismissed the case. The charges were then reinstated and the State’s Attorney’s Office then offered both the women the pre-trial diversions.

According to court documents, Howard was Watkins’ supervisor at a Minot business. A second woman, who also worked under Howard, called police in August 2020 and said Howard had called her into the office to discuss her work schedule and Watkins was also there. The reporting party recorded the meeting on her phone because she was suspicious of Howard.

The woman who was reportedly the intended victim of the scheme did not know Howard. Authorities alleged that Howard wanted to settle a score with the other woman and had planned to have Watkins and the unidentified witness pick up the targeted victim and get her drunk. Howard then planned to slip a drug into the woman’s drink so she would fail drug testing and be fired. Howard asked the women to grab the targeted victim’s keys and purse. Howard planned to use them to gain access to the targeted victim’s apartment so she could plant the drug there. Both Watkins and the witness had initially agreed to help Howard carry out the scheme, but the witness later decided to go to police because she was worried about the safety of the targeted victim.

There was no evidence that either Howard or Watkins had made contact with the targeted victim or her residence or that either had acquired a drug to be used on the targeted victim. Authorities also didn’t know what kind of drug was supposed to be used, though they speculated that it might be something akin to the ADHD drug Adderall.