Man Stabs Estranged Wife Outside Courtroom
A woman seeking a restraining order against her husband Monday in Van Nuys Superior Court was stabbed six times by her estranged husband outside the courtroom after the case was moved to an area with no metal detectors, police said.
Authorities said bailiffs wrestled the knife from the man, A.J. Wells, 33, of Reseda. He was booked for attempted murder and was being held without bail at the Van Nuys jail.
Shirley Wells, 33, of North Hollywood was in stable condition at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.
The hearing was moved to a bungalow because asbestos was being removed in two courtrooms.
Kenneth Carline, Shirley Wells’ brother-in-law, said A.J. Wells lunged for his wife just outside the bungalow with what police said was a steak knife, stabbing her five times in the chest and once in the abdomen. The husband was subdued by bailiffs.
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