Police said a 23-year-old woman accused of murder in connection with the death of her husband in Moanalua confessed that she stabbed him with a knife after he choked her.
Evelin Iturbide appeared at Honolulu District Court before Judge James Kawashima on Wednesday after she was charged a day earlier with second-degree murder in the death of Sgt. Juan Iturbide, 24. He was stationed at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base Hawaii and served as a food service specialist.
Deputy Public Defender Charles Cryan represented Iturbide, who didn’t speak and mostly kept her head down during her brief court appearance.
Kawashima confirmed her bail at $750,000.
Sometime before 11:30 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a stabbing at a residence at 1308 Ala Kapuna St. When they arrived, they observed an unresponsive male later identified as Juan Iturbide lying on the floor near the front door in a pool of blood.
Police observed a puncture wound near his neck.
Emergency Medical Services transported him to Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight Monday.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office said the cause of Iturbide’s death was a stab wound to the chest. The manner of his death was classified as a homicide.
When police first arrived at the residence, Evelin Iturbide told police that she was putting their baby to sleep when she heard yelling near the front door and then saw her husband lying on the floor bleeding.
After paramedics took Juan Iturbide to the hospital, she asked to speak to police in private and admitted to stabbing her husband, police said in a court document.
She told a police officer they were drinking in the house when he “became aggressive and began choking her neck,” the court document said.
At some point, she said, he released her. She then ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and stabbed her husband, according to the police report.
Police arrested her on suspicion of second-degree murder.
