Sailor testifies he was having a nervous breakdown when he stabbed 2 women on [View All]

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Sailor testifies he was having a nervous breakdown when he stabbed 2 women on
By Allison Batdorff and Hana Kusumoto, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, April 19, 2008

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A U.S. sailor told police he was a “balloon ready to pop” before he snapped and stabbed two Japanese women last summer.

At his hearing Thursday, USS Gary sailor Joshua David Williams told the Yokohama District Court in Yokosuka that stress — from his personal life and from the Navy — caused him to stab the 16-year-old “Lady A” and 26-year-old “Lady S” on the morning of July 5.

“I was a cup of water that was full. A couple more drops sent me over the edge,” Williams said when he took the stand in his second trial proceeding.

Williams, 20, is accused of attempting to murder the two women, whose names are not being used in the trial. He is accused of stabbing Lady A in the abdomen, piercing her liver, and stabbing Lady S 17 times in the back, shoulder, waist and head.

The sailor previously admitted to the stabbings but said Thursday that he “subconsciously didn’t want to hurt them.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54151