Opinion ID: 1399120
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Assault With Knife

Text: One evening in the early part of May 1986, defendant came into Kim's grandmother's house. He tossed a set of car keys around and told her Jack wouldn't bother her any more. A couple of days later, on May 14, 1986, defendant pulled up on his motorcycle at her grandmother's house, entered, and said Kim had to leave with him or he would kill everyone in the house. Defendant followed Kim into the kitchen, picked up a knife, and held it to her throat. She agreed to go with defendant because her grandmother and her son were in the house. She told her grandmother, in Spanish, to go to the flower shop at the front of the house and call her uncle, Tony Maestas. Her grandmother did so. Defendant and Kim left the house. Maestas ran out of the flower shop, demanding to know what was going on. Defendant jumped on his motorcycle and drove off. Kim and her uncle returned to her grandmother's house. Defendant telephoned and arranged to meet Kim at a Burger King. She was accompanied by her uncle, who carried a gun for protection. Defendant approached their vehicle and told Kim to go inside the restaurant because he wanted to talk to Maestas. Defendant flipped his butterfly knife open and closed, then threw it on the passenger seat to indicate he was unarmed. Maestas told him his 81-year-old mother was scared to death of him and asked how he would feel if she dropped dead of fright of him coming over to terrorize her. Defendant replied he had no feelings and didn't care if she dropped dead. He said, I even killed Bubs. (Jack Dowdy, Jr., was nicknamed Bubs.) Defendant went into the Burger King to talk to Kim. When they emerged, defendant ordered Kim to go to the back of her uncle's truck so that he could talk with Maestas. He told Maestas not to tell Kim anything of what he had told him, and that Maestas was the only one whom defendant had told about Bubs. Defendant took his knife from Maestas's truck and left. Later that day, he moved out of Kim's aunt's house and admitted himself to the Veterans' Administration hospital.