Puna woman allegedly tried to kill estranged husband

HILO >> A 54-year-old Puna woman accused of stabbing her estranged husband multiple times said she was aiming for his jugular but missed, the couple’s children told Hawaii island police.

The two teenage daughters of Jill and Christopher Dunston told an interviewer at the Children’s Justice Center that their mother made the statement after allegedly stabbing 56-year-old Christopher Dunston in a darkened bathroom in a Ainaloa Estates home on the evening of Sept. 30, according to court documents filed police. The older of the two daughters, who’s 17, told the interviewer that her mother called her father a “cheating (expletive),” and that he deserved to die.

Jill Dunston is charged with attempted second-­degree murder, second-degree assault, and domestic abuse in the presence of a minor for the attack, which left Christopher Dunston with four stab wounds on his rear left shoulder.

He was treated at the scene by emergency medical personnel and went to Hilo Benioff Medical Center for further treatment.

According to court records, Jill Dunston filed for a divorce from her husband on Sept. 18, stating their marriage of 18-plus years is “irretrievably broken” and seeking alimony from him.

Christopher Dunston filed a petition in Hilo Family Court on Monday seeking a protective order for the couple’s two daughters. A hearing about that petition is scheduled for Oct. 13.

Dunston, who told police he and his wife do not live together, wrote in his petition that he was visiting his daughters and was watching a television show with them while Jill Dunston was in the next room. After the show was finished, Dunston wrote, he went to the bathroom, and his wife followed him there.

“She shut the door and turned out the light,” he told police, according to the court documents. “She moved toward me, and I saw her silhouette motion as if she was going to strike me. I took a defense stance, and she punched me four times in my shoulder by my neck. I pushed her away, and she ran out of the room.”

The victim wrote that his shoulder started burning. He touched it, and when he stepped into the lighted hallway, he saw blood on his hands.

“I saw Jill run out of the house with a knife in her hands. I walked to the door and locked it,” Christopher Dunston wrote.

He added that he called 911, and his older daughter tried to bandage his wounds with gauze.

According to the victim, his wife then slashed a kitchen screen to reenter the house. His daughters ran, and he “faced her in a defensive stance.” Dunston said his wife ran out of the house again without any further physical contact, and police took her into custody when they arrived.

Jill Dunston, who has no prior felony convictions, requested an attorney, and no interview was conducted.

Police obtained a search warrant for the property and took several kitchen knives into evidence, according to the documents.

At her court appearance Monday, Deputy Public Defender Paul Billinson requested that Hilo District Judge Jeffrey Hawk free her on supervised release, which is a form of cashless bail.

Deputy Public Defender Andrew Son objected and Hawk denied the motion, maintaining Dunston’s bail at $1.04 million.