BRINNON — A Brinnon man has been charged with first-degree attempted murder for allegedly slashing an ex-girlfriend repeatedly with a machete, sending her to a Seattle hospital.
James Nathaniel Parker, 38, has been charged in Jefferson County Superior Court with attempted first-degree murder with domestic violence and a deadly weapon and first-degree assault with a deadly weapon-domestic violence, with intent to do great bodily harm, according to court documents.
Both are Class A felonies.
Parker remained in the Jefferson County Jail with no bond on Tuesday. He was arrested late Sunday after he allegedly hacked the unidentified 27-year-old woman with a machete and then fled from the Brinnon home, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies were alerted by a neighbor at about 9:42 p.m. Sunday that a woman had been badly cut. The woman opened the front door of her residence and was attacked by Parker with a machete, she told an investigator.
She was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for care, according to the probable cause report by Sgt. Brett Anglin of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Anglin said Monday the woman is expected to survive.
“We do know her condition is improving as we intend to speak with her today,” Anglin said Tuesday in an email.
Sgt. Shane Stevenson met with the woman on Sunday night as she sat in the passenger seat of a vehicle. She was bleeding profusely from large cuts on her arms, upper back, head, shoulders and neck, according to the probable cause report.
Stevenson told Anglin that the woman’s left arm was no longer working.
Parker and the woman had a five-year relationship but had been separated for about five years, Anglin said.
Sheriff’s deputies located Parker later Sunday night after he reportedly attempted to carjack an occupied vehicle in Mason County, Anglin said.
Parker’s own vehicle was stopped on U.S. Highway 101 at about milepost 317 in Mason County. Jefferson County deputies were investigating Monday if the vehicle suffered mechanical issues or if Parker intentionally abandoned it, Anglin said.
Mason County law enforcement assisted Jefferson County deputies with police dog Jano, who tracked and found Parker hiding in a wooded area about 100 yards away from his vehicle, Anglin said.
When Stevenson arrested Parker, he read him his rights and then asked Parker why he tried to kill the victim, and Parker responded “because the voices told me to do it,” Anglin said.
When Anglin interviewed Parker at the Jefferson County Jail, Anglin observed dried blood on Parker, and Parker informed him that he had been hearing voices for several months and “that he [didn’t] remember anything and that he last remembers watching TV in his house and being arrested,” Anglin said.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, with the help of the State Patrol crime lab, investigated the crime scene, where large amounts of blood was discovered, investigators said.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
