A 25-year-old man who survived a stabbing in his Waikoloa home more than four years ago told a Hilo Circuit Court jury Thursday he was with a friend, watching a computer video of a luxury German performance car, when the friend slashed his throat from behind.
Jeremy Nicholas, who now lives in Florida, testified in the trial of Joel Hanalei White he was taken by surprise when White — whom Nicholas called “Hana” — attacked him on April 17, 2014.
White, a 40-year-old Waimea man, is charged with second-degree attempted murder, a charge that carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole upon conviction. White admits to slashing the neck of Nicholas — an admitted cocaine dealer — and stabbing him multiple times in the back. White’s lawyer, Jacob Delaplane, said in Wednesday’s opening argument the stabbing was self-defense.
Nicholas told the jury of nine men and three women, plus four alternates, all men, he was aware there was “about a pound-and-a-half” of cocaine in his residence, which he said had a value of $48,000. He said he sold White 1/8 ounce of cocaine — in street parlance, an “eight-ball” — “once or twice a week.” Nicholas admitted he also knew police had found a handgun registered to another friend in a nightstand in his room. He said he was aware of the firearm’s existence, but didn’t know the friend, who had stayed with Nicholas for a short time, had left the gun there.
According to Nicholas, White’s girlfriend, Ahlea Giles, had come to his house carrying a suitcase and crashed out on his bed. He said White called, wanting to talk to Giles, but she’d hung up on White. Nicholas said he then received a text from White that said “WTF” and told jurors he’d recently had a one-night stand with Giles. Despite that, Nicholas said, there was no indication White might have known or that anything was wrong after White arrived, unannounced, to retrieve Giles.
Nicholas said he and White were viewing a video of a Porsche Panamera when he felt White’s hand “jerk over my neck.”
“I touched my neck and I looked and there was blood on my hand, and I jumped up and ran. … I realized he had cut my throat,” Nicholas testified.
Nicholas told jurors he damaged the desk shelf holding his computer keyboard and knocked over his chair attempting to escape, than ran to the room of his landlady, an elderly massage therapist who also lived in the home.
“I came to her door and she noticed — like, she jumped up. And I got knocked into the corner of her closet and I choked a little bit, and (White) stabbed me a couple times in the back of my neck and my shoulder,” Nicholas said. “… I could hear and feel my neck flapping because I was breathing through my windpipe at that point. … I could feel my Adam’s apple outside of my neck, like it was wide open.”
Nicholas testified the landlady appeared to think the attack was a mutual affray and said, “Cut it out.”
“I ran immediately back to my bedroom and toward the sliding glass door. … I had to get out of the house,” he said, adding White continued to chase and stab him. By then, Nicholas said, Giles had awakened and was “screaming” for White to stop, but White didn’t do so.
“He grabbed my shirt and it ripped and it spun me around. And I was, like, halfway out the sliding glass door, facing him,” Nicholas said.
“When you spun around, was this the first time you had been face to face with him since he slit your throat?” Deputy Prosecutor Annaliese Wolf asked.
“Yes, it’s the first time I’d seen him,” Nicholas answered.
“What did his face look like?” the prosecutor inquired.
“He was smiling at my neck, grinning with his teeth,” Nicholas replied, and added he was able to rip his shirt off and run down the street.
“I tried to scream for help; it was just mute. There was no noise. I couldn’t make any sound,” he added.
An individual Nicholas described as “a kid with a backpack” ran toward him and “asked if I needed an ambulance.”
“I nodded and pointed to a neighbor’s house, the only neighbor I’d met at the time. He was a landscaper. He had cut my grass before. … His wife or his girlfriend came to the door and brought me some towels,” he recalled.
Nicholas said that as he was transported to North Hawaii Community Hospital in Waimea for emergency surgery, he had to sit up during the ride to prevent choking on his own blood.
“Do you remember undergoing anesthesia?” Wolf queried.
“Yes,” Nicholas said.
“And what do you remember after that?”
“I woke up at Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu.”
Jurors were shown numerous photographs of the crime scene, with several surfaces smeared with blood.
One exhibit depicted a computer desk with what appears to be a keyboard tray been bent upwards and a black, four-legged office chair on casters turned on its side.
The trial will continue Tuesday in the courtroom of Judge Henry Nakamoto.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
