A Camas woman accused of trying to kill her live-in boyfriend with a samurai sword because she believed he was cheating on her pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempted first-degree domestic violence murder.
The prosecution will recommend a 20-year prison sentence for Emily Javier, 31, while the defense is free to argue for a sentence below the standard range of 15 to 20 years.
Javier will be sentenced March 11 in Clark County Superior Court, following what the attorneys anticipate will be a contested half-day hearing. Her defense attorney, Chris Ramsay, told the court he plans to call at least one expert to testify.
On Wednesday, Javier admitted to taking substantial steps toward trying to kill her boyfriend, Alex Lovell, then 29.
She previously told investigators she hatched a plan to kill Lovell, whom she had been dating for two years, and specifically bought the sword from a store in Vancouver Mall for that purpose. She hid his cellphone so he couldn’t call for help, attacked him in his sleep and then called 911 only after she believed he was dead, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
The affidavit states that she told officers, “I was trying to kill him for cheating. That was my purpose.”
Lovell was found inside the couple’s bedroom with several life-threatening injuries.
In an interview with The Columbian 1 1/2 weeks after the attack, Lovell said his index, middle and ring fingers on his left hand were “pretty much” cut off at the base, though doctors were able to reattach them. His right foot sustained a clean cut, and his left knee suffered a laceration that required a metal plate to repair some of the bone, he said. His right wrist was put in a cast. He suffered minor lacerations on his torso, a “decent cut” on the left side of his head, as well as bruising on his neck.
Shortly before 2 a.m. March 3, Camas police were dispatched to 2013 N.E. Garfield St., after Javier called 911 to report that she had just stabbed her boyfriend with a sword and thought he was dead. When police arrived, Javier — covered in blood and crying — walked out of the house with her hands up, the affidavit says.
“He’s in there. I just stabbed him. You guys need to help him!” the affidavit says Javier told police.
About a week before the attack, Javier found evidence that Lovell was cheating on her, she said, including a dating app on his cellphone and red hair in the shower drain; it was not hers, according to court records. She added that Lovell “sits at home all day playing video games and does not do anything to help,” court documents state.
Javier didn’t confront Lovell about her suspicions, she said, because when she had in the past, he denied it. Instead, she purchased a samurai sword and said she had been thinking about stabbing him with it for the past week, the affidavit says.
The final straw, she said, was when Lovell came home earlier that night and ignored her. She said that “angered her, and she decided tonight was the night she was going to do it,” police wrote in the affidavit.
She hid the sword and two knives she taped together on her side of the bed. The couple went to bed about 8 or 9 p.m., and she waited for Lovell to fall asleep. She then grabbed the sword and began stabbing Lovell and swinging it at him, according to court records.
Lovell told The Columbian he was a professional gamer, which is why he played video games all day. He denied being unfaithful and said the couple’s relationship had been rocky since the beginning and that Javier was often jealous.
