A former Schofield Barracks soldier gave grim testimony at her sister’s trial Wednesday as she described a knife attack that left her with a punctured kidney.
Casey Ann Jones, 25, identified her sister, Jessica Lee Hinebaugh, and her sister’s boyfriend, Michael Ayala, as her attackers.
Hinebaugh, 21, and Ayala, 24, are on trial for attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, theft and identity theft.
Jones told the jury that Hinebaugh held her down by lying on top of her and covered her mouth while Ayala stabbed her. She said at one point Ayala stopped and told her sister: "Damn, this thing’s too dull. It’s not going to work, Jessica."
Jones was a Schofield Barracks soldier and two months pregnant at the time of the Oct. 6, 2013, attack. She gave birth in May.
As she was fighting for her life on her living room floor, Jones’ assailants kissed each other and exchanged a compliment: "You’re so cute," she told the jury.
An emergency room doctor from the Queen’s Medical Center earlier testified that multiple injuries along two of Jones’ left ribs appeared to have been caused by a pointed object that did not puncture the skin. Jones also had scratches on her abdomen and back.
Honolulu police found a knife with a bent blade in the living room of the Mililani Mauka townhouse unit that Hinebaugh shared with her sister and brother-in-law.
Jones said Ayala went to the kitchen to get another knife and continued stabbing her. She suffered two puncture wounds in her lower back, one of which penetrated her left kidney.
In extreme pain, she yelled out, Jones said, at which point Ayala hit her multiple times with a bat, closed the windows to the living room, told her to shut up and threatened to stomp her head in.
By then, Jones said, she believed she was not going to get away and stopped struggling. She said she asked her attackers to kill her somewhere else so her husband wouldn’t find her body in their home.
She recalled Ayala telling Hinebaugh: "It’s not supposed to happen like this, Jessica. We were supposed to kill her."
She said Hinebaugh replied, "I don’t think we have to kill her."
Jones said she begged for her life and that of her baby, and vowed to give her attackers whatever they wanted and to keep quiet about what they did.
They demanded tickets to Miami, which Jones bought online as Hinebaugh held a knife on her.
Hinebaugh is also accused of taking cash, a check and a debit card from her sister that she later used to withdraw money.
The apparent motive for the attack was Hinebaugh’s resentment that Jones had left home as a teenager, leaving Hinebaugh to suffer in an abusive environment.
Hinebaugh chose not to testify in her own defense.
During the attack, Jones said, her sister kept telling her, "You know I love you."
At one point she changed her tune, saying: "I f—g hate you. You know you broke every promise you made to me. You left me when I was a kid."
Ayala left the Mililani Mauka home after Hinebaugh told him to wait for her a short distance away, Jones said. She was watching her sister pack when her husband arrived home.
Ryan Jones testified on Monday that when he got home, he saw the knife with the bent blade on the living room floor, noticed that items in the room were out of place, and that his wife appeared scared and skittish. But when he asked his wife and sister-in-law what had happened, neither offered an explanation.
He said his wife told him that Hinebaugh was going to stay at a friend’s house for a couple of days and assumed the sisters had had a serious fight.
As soon as Hinebaugh left, Jones said, his wife told him to get the bat they kept next to their bed.
When he again asked his wife what happened, he said, she told him, "They might still be here."
At his wife’s urging, he said, they got into their car and headed to Wahiawa General Hospital. En route, he said, his wife lifted her shirt, exposing the two stab wounds to her back.
State sheriff deputies stopped Hinebaugh and Ayala at Honolulu Airport on Oct. 7.
Ayala testified that he was living in Florida when he met Hinebaugh online in July 2013 and from then on communicated with her by text messages.
He said he arrived in Hawaii on Oct. 2 from Georgia with a ticket Hinebaugh purchased for him with money he’d sent her.
For his first four nights in Hawaii, Ayala said, he stayed with Hinebaugh in the Mililani Mauka townhouse without Ryan and Casey Jones’ knowledge.
He said he was not in the home during the attack and met Hinebaugh at a Longs Drugs store. He said she had their tickets and told him they were going to Florida.
