A teenage girl and her boyfriend are facing charges of attempted first degree murder after they allegedly tried to kill the girl’s father in his sleep with a meat tenderizer in January. The teen couple, both aged 18 and from Bellevue, and were identified by police as Gabriella Alexis Laws and Joshua Fithian.
According to Omaha World Herald, the teenagers attacked 59-year-old Robert Laws using a metal meat tenderizer and a wooden rod. Bellevue cops received a call from the home northeast of 48th Street and Nebraska Highway 370 past 2 am on Jan. 17 and found the man with severe injuries on the left side of his face.
The victim’s wife recalled that she was roused from her sleep by a noise while she was sleeping in a separate bedroom. She got up to check on the noise and found a wooden rod in the hallway. Upon looking in on her husband, she noticed he was unresponsive although his CPAP mask remained secured to his face. She then spotted the metal meat tenderizer on the floor.
Laws was rushed to the Nebraska Medical Center with such severe injuries that doctors had to place him in a medically-induced coma due to the bleeding in his brain caused by his cranial fractures. He was later transferred to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital where he was interviewed by police on Feb 10. However, Laws said he had no clear memory of the attack, but he thought his daughter’s boyfriend may have been responsible after they had gotten into an earlier dispute.
Fithian mentioned that Gabriella had been arguing with her parents about him sneaking in and out of the family home past midnight.
Fithian admitted being in the home on Jan 16 after dinner and had stayed in the basement until 12:45 am. According to the teen, he left the house through a basement window, however Gabriella said he walked out the front door.
Gabriella told police she had no idea who attacked her father and even hinted on the possibility that she had done it in her sleep. “I mean I don’t think it was my mom, and I don’t know, I didn’t do it but if I did in my sleep I don’t know,” she said.
Police were able to gather DNA from Gabriella and filed a search warrant to get Fithian’s for them to compare with what has been found on the wooden rod and the meat tenderizer. The defendants have also been charged with two counts of assault using a weapon to commit a felony, and conspiracy to commit murder.
Their bond was set at $1 million.
