A 49-year-old woman accused of cutting the neck of a man sitting in his vehicle outside of a Hazel Dell apartment building appeared Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court.
Ester J. Mitchell was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault Sunday and booked into the Clark County Jail.
She appeared in court wearing a suicide-prevention smock, given to inmates who may try to harm themselves with standard jail clothing, and said little beyond confirming she would like a defense attorney.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched about 1 p.m. Sunday to the Willow Creek Apartments, 8500 N.E. Hazel Dell Ave., for a report of a malicious mischief incident. Mitchell was the suspect for the call, which entailed a woman hitting an apartment door with a pipe, according to a probable cause affidavit.
“Several calls had come in through the day involving (Mitchell), and (deputies) have handled several calls involving her in the past,” the affidavit says.
Responding deputies quickly discovered that a man had been attacked with a knife while sitting in his vehicle outside of the apartment building where Mitchell lives, the sheriff’s office said.
She allegedly reached in through the open window with a knife and cut the man across his neck, deputies said. The man said Mitchell yelled, “Let those girls go!” the affidavit says.
The man tried to move his vehicle when Mitchell started reaching back inside with the knife still in her hand. Deputies said Mitchell was trying to cut the victim again. He managed to get the knife away from the woman, and she left the scene.
The victim told police he’d never met Mitchell before, according to the affidavit.
While deputies were speaking with the victim, Mitchell came out of her apartment building armed with a large butcher knife in one hand and a 6- to 8-inch pestle in her other hand, according to the affidavit. She walked toward a deputy and was told to drop the weapons. She immediately complied and was taken into custody.
In a subsequent interview, Mitchell told deputies that “babies are trapped” in various spots around the apartment building and in the back of the victim’s van. She said she “wanted to save the babies.” The pestle was to smash the window of the van, she said, and the knife was for cutting whatever the babies were tied down with, according to the affidavit.
Court records say Mitchell has bipolar disorder but does not take her medication. And when she was booked into the jail, corrections deputies noted she was detoxing from methamphetamine use.
Judge Robert Lewis set Mitchell’s bail at $50,000, half the amount requested by the prosecution.
An arraignment hearing was scheduled for Friday.
