By Linhchi Nguyen
SACRAMENTO – A defendant—accused of stabbing her past partner with a kitchen knife after attempting to escape with their mutual child in tow—is now set for trial after a preliminary hearing Wednesday at Sacramento County Superior Court.
Assistant Public Defender Damien L. Jovel, though, argued against the charges faced by defendant Lissa Bailey, calling it an act of “self-defense.”
On May 26, there was an altercation between Bailey and a past partner about who was going to get their mutual child. The conflict occurred at the partner’s apartment.
Officer David Hernandez, who eventually arrived at the scene, testified on what the alleged victim experienced. According to Hernandez’s testimony, Bailey grabbed the child and threatened the partner that “she was going to kill him” while holding a kitchen knife to his head.
The victim told Officer Hernandez that he was indeed afraid for his life.
Bailey, still holding the child, then dashed downstairs toward the exit, as the victim followed closely behind her. Once she made it out the front door, Hernandez testified that the victim tried 
to grab the knife from Bailey, causing her to stumble backwards.
“She reached out again and boom boom! She pierced me,” claimed the victim.
When asked whether the victim was afraid, he responded that he “was more shocked than anything, but he was afraid when she was holding the knife to his head.”
After, Hernandez arrived at the scene and was able to examine a cut on the victim’s left hand and a small puncture in his groin area, although the injury was hard to see since it was covered in blood. The victim was then transported to the hospital, where the medical staff confirmed some injury in the thigh groin arteries.
However, despite this evidence, Jovel denied that Bailey’s actions qualified as an assault or criminal threat. “This is … self-defense,” Jovel argued.
Jovel pointed out that the defendant stumbled backwards before allegedly stabbing him, which indicates that the victim must have been moving forward, towards her.
“I mean just think about it…if he wants to grab the knife and you stumble back, and he does not move at all, how is she going to stumble back and be able to strike him?” Jovel insisted. “He has to be moving forward.”
In addition, Jovel argued that there was a lack of sustained fear in the victim for Bailey’s act to qualify as a criminal threat. He explained that, despite having a knife held to his head, the victim still followed her downstairs to grab the knife.
“This doesn’t show fear,” said Jovel. “It shows courage. And courage is the opposite of fear.”
Furthermore, during cross-examination, Officer Hernandez admitted that the victim did tell him he didn’t believe the defendant was going to stab him. There has also been no history of domestic violence between the defendant and victim, according to Hernandez.
Deputy District Attorney Tara Crabill countered that “there’s no self-defense here. There’s no evidence that the victim did anything to justify the defendant stabbing him.” Instead, his act of grabbing the knife from her indicates that the victim was “trying to protect himself.”
Lastly, just because the victim claimed that he didn’t believe Bailey was going to stab him doesn’t mean “he can’t be in fear if he’s so close to her and the knife is out,” claimed Crabill. Since sustained fear only requires one to be scared for longer than a second, Crabill argued that it is clear the victim’s reaction met that element.
Judge Shelleyanne Chang stated that there is sufficient evidence to hold the defendant to answer on these counts. She said that there was testimony to both the victim being afraid of the defendant outside of the apartment and the defendant affirmatively reaching out to stab the victim.
Judge Chang then arranged for the defendant to come back for a plea negotiation date on November 5 at 1:35 p.m. in Department 60. The trial readiness conference is also scheduled for January 13 in the same department.
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