A homeless woman accused of tying up and stabbing a stranger in the stranger’s Kalihi apartment, then setting the apartment on fire, is claiming self defense.

Mavourneen Rombawa, 39, is on trial in state court for attempted murder, kidnapping and arson charges. She was supposed to have a jury trial, but on the first day of jury selection Wednesday decided instead that she wanted the trial judge, Circuit Judge Edwin Nacino, to decide her fate.

In the trial’s opening statements Thursday, Deputy Prosecutor Matthew Terry said Rombawa followed then-57-year-old Danita Rodrigues-Mendez into her second-floor walk-up apartment on Kamehameha IV Road on May 20, 2015. He said Rombawa brandished a knife, insisted on taking a shower and threatened to stab Rodrigues-Mendez if she fled.

Terry said after the shower Rombawa “accuses Danita of killing her babies,” tied Rodrigues-Mendez to a chair with electrical cord, stabbed her in the neck three times then set the couch on fire.

Neighbors who heard Rodrigues-Mendez scream for help saw Rombawa flee the apartment. One neighbor who tried to stop her told police Rombawa swung a knife at him.

That neighbor followed Rombawa to a nearby home where the residents saw her wash her hands in an outdoor sink. When police arrived they found Rombawa covered in blood and a knife nearby.

Police said Rombawa told them she broke and cut all the equipment and wiring in the apartment because there were surveillance cameras, speakers and microphones monitoring Rodrigues-Mendez, whom she referred to only as the “haole lady.”

She admitted to stabbing Rodrigues-Mendez and said she burned the apartment because of all the wiring and bed bugs.

Rodrigues-Mendez went to The Queen’s Medical Center by ambulance in critical condition.

Rombawa’s lawyer, Randall Hironaka, said that contrary to what Rodrigues-Mendez told police, the two women knew each other and had taken drugs together on the day of the incident and on at least two earlier occasions.

Hironaka said Rodrigues-­Mendez invited Rombawa into her apartment and let her take a shower.

Hironaka said Rombawa never tied up Rodrigues-Mendes. Terry said Rodrigues-Mendes broke free before neighbors, police and firefighters arrived.

After the shower, Hiro­naka said, Rodrigues-Mendez made wild accusations against Rombawa and attacked her.

“She actually rushed Mavourneen with a pot or pan,” he said.

Hironaka said Rombawa defended herself and as the two women were struggling on the floor, Rodrigues-­Mendez reached for a knife. He said Rodrigues-Mendez received the stab wounds and cuts to her forehead as the two women fought over the knife. Hironaka said Rombawa fled after she gained control of the knife and swung it at one of the neighbors because she was high and didn’t know who he was.

Rombawa did not set the apartment on fire but suspects it was started by a makeshift oil lamp the women used for smoking methamphetamine that could have been knocked over as the women struggled, Hironaka said.