By Leslie Ortiz
SACRAMENTO, CA – Defendant Gian Hansra is headed to trial after his preliminary hearing this week here in Sacramento County Superior Court, charged with a felony for criminal threats with the use of a deadly weapon, and a misdemeanor for slapping and threatening his wife with a knife multiple times.
On Feb. 27 this year, at around 8:30 p.m., Officer Jason Miller testified he responded to a 911 call that had arguing in the background and a request for police. When Officer Miller arrived on scene, he said he heard that arguing coming from inside the residence.
When Officer Miller entered the residence, he testified there was a male seated on the couch and a female standing in the living room yelling at the male. In court, at the request of Deputy District Attorney Amanda Sanchez, the officer identified Hansra as the male at the residence that day.
When Officer Miller spoke to the female at the residence, he learned that she was married to Hansra, and told Miller that she was in an argument with Hansra and she was packing her belongings to leave the house with their child when Hansra hit her in the face with an “open right hand.”
According to the victim, the argument began when Hansra questioned where she was going as she packed her stuff to leave.
Before the incident, the couple had been having marital issues, the officer learned, and had been arguing for the past couple of days. The victim stated that the cause of those marital issues were because Hansra was “gone for a couple of days and she hadn’t heard from him.”
After a heated verbal exchange, Hansra went to the kitchen, grabbed a large knife, and allegedy threatened, said the victim, to kill her.
Officer Miller stated that the victim told Hansra to kill her. After that, Hansra allegedly went to the kitchen and wiped the knife down, “almost like cleaning off fingerprints,” and then put the knife away.
The victim’s sister and brother-in-law eventually arrived at the residence where the victim stated “hit me now that my family is here.”
Hansra, the victim told the officer, retrieved the knife and came at the victim, threatening to kill her again, but was stopped by the victim’s sister and brother-in-law.
Hansra placed the knife down on the kitchen counter, and slapped the victim again, as the argument continued until the police arrived on the scene, according to the victim in her statement to Officer Miller.
Officer Miller said the victim suffered injuries as the “left side of her face and ear were swollen” and she did “look consistent with being slapped in the face.”
Officer Miller also spoke to the victim’s sister, who shared a similar story. According to the sister, she went to the residence with her husband after being called by her sister, and once they entered they witnessed Hansra and his wife arguing.
Defense Attorney Richard Chan noted that Officer Miller stated that Hansra approached his wife with a metal knife facing her, but did not include that in his report. Furthermore, he mentioned that in the report the officer did not mention “how far away Hansra was when he had the knife in his hand walking towards” the victim.
Chan stated “As part of your training to be a police officer you are taught the importance of writing a police report” and “to put all important facts in there because…a defense lawyer or a prosecutor might refer to that report,” adding, “You would agree that the distance between an assailant and a victim when he has a knife and is threatening her is a pretty (important) fact?”
Judge James E. McFetridge stated that he “finds there is sufficient cause to believe the defendant is guilty.”
Chan had his client waive full arraignment and enter not guilty pleas and denials. The next hearing for further proceedings was set for Nov. 18 at 8:30 a.m.
