PORT ANGELES — A 42-year-old Port Angeles resident remained in the Clallam County jail Wednesday on $100,000 bail after he allegedly stabbed and slashed his girlfriend Sunday, causing injuries that led to her receiving stitches at Olympic Medical Center before she was released.
Cameron Nicholas Baker Craig, a Tulalip tribal member on disability, had accused the woman of cheating on him with imaginary people he believed were in his trailer, according to the probable cause statement, in which an officer said Craig was tased to subdue him.
Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols said Tuesday at Craig’s initial Superior Court hearing that he anticipates filing formal charges against Craig at a 3 p.m. hearing today.
Craig, who spoke haltingly at the hearing Tuesday and said he can barely read, was in jail Wednesday for investigation of second-degree domestic violence, unlawful imprisonment, resisting arrest and obstructing a law enforcement officer.
“He did not go quietly,” Nichols said at the hearing.
“He had to be tased not once but twice and possibly three times before being taken into custody.”
Nichols recommended $100,000 bail, which Judge Lauren Erickson agreed to, saying Craig’s “delusional behavior” indicates he is a “substantial danger” to the public.
Harry Gasnick of Clallam Public Defender, representing Craig, recommended Craig be released on his personal recognizance, saying the victim “felt comfortable enough” to go to bed in the trailer while Craig was “engaged in a knife fight with imaginary people.”
The woman, 47, had a bloody bandage on her right bicep when Port Angeles police arrived at the Peabody Creek RV Park, according to the probable cause statement.
The woman, who pleaded guilty in May 2016 to third-degree assault against Craig in a jealousy-related knife incident, according to court documents, said Craig, wielding a hunting knife that he wears, had stabbed her, slashed her hand, and jabbed her side.
Craig refused to leave the trailer when police arrived, according to the statement.
Officers entered through the back door, walking down a bloody hallway.
They found Craig holding what appeared to be a small knife he refused to drop that turned out to be a 4-5-inch safety pin, according to the statement.
After being tased three times, Craig “crumpled over,” according to the affidavit.
Multiple officers had to hold him down while he struggled before arresting him, according to the statement.
The woman told officers Craig had quit drinking alcohol for about four months before having three drinks a day earlier.
He had become paranoid, accusing her of cheating on him “with the ‘imaginary’ people that he believed were in the room” before assaulting her with the knife and punching her in the nose, she said.
The woman said “she was hoping he would calm down and go to bed,” according to the statement.
He told her “you’re going to die slowly” and said “she could not leave and that he would find her,” according to the statement.
The woman told Craig she was going to do laundry before escaping out the back door without him noticing, she told police.
She went to the nearby Safeway grocery story and had an employee call the police.
OMC staff said the woman later received stitches on her left side and bicep.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
