One of the victims in the Dec. 23 double stabbing in Ewa Beach fought off her attacker in an attempt to protect the other victim and even disarmed her assailant, Deputy Prosecutor Rafael Renteria said in state court Thursday.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging Jahsiah Price-Brown, 24, with the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend and her mother.
Circuit Judge Colette Garibaldi confirmed Price-Brown’s bail at $2 million.
Renteria told Garibaldi that the 24-year-old ex-girlfriend went to Price-Brown’s home Dec. 23 to drop off their son. Price-Brown’s older child from another relationship was already in the home, and the two children were put into a bedroom. Price-Brown took his ex-girlfriend into another bedroom where he choked her, punched her in the face and stabbed her in the chest, Renteria said.
Price-Brown then turned his attention to the ex-girlfriend’s 53-year-old mother, who had driven her daughter and grandson to Price-Brown’s Laulaunui Street home, heard her daughter call for help and entered the home.
Renteria said the ex-girlfriend went to the kitchen where she heard Price-Brown and her mother involved in a struggle, jumped on Price-Brown’s back and choked him to try to get him off her mother. The mother then called to the children to get help.
As the mother was attempting to escape, Price-Brown caught her, locked the front door and began stabbing her, according to the prosecutor.
Police said a neighbor, to whom the children had gone for help, broke the window to the front door, unlocked the door and dragged the mother out of the house. The neighbor told police that when he went back into the home, he saw Price-Brown stabbing the ex-girlfriend as she was lying on the sofa.
At some point, Renteria said, the ex-girlfriend was able to calm Price-Brown and take the knife away from him. She then stumbled out of the home.
Police recovered an 8-inch knife, covered with blood, just outside the front door. They arrested Price-Brown after he had barricaded himself in the home.
The ex-girlfriend and her mother were taken by ambulance in critical condition to the Queen’s Medical Center-West Oahu, then to Queen’s in Honolulu, where their condition improved to serious following surgery. Renteria said both women suffered rib fractures during the stabbing.