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WAILUKU -- After being punched in the head twice by a homeless man who had refused to leave a Kahului restaurant, a security guard said she put her hands up to avoid being struck again when the man bit off her finger.
"He just bit onto my finger. He wasn't letting go," said Janine Carroll, an Allied Universal Security guard working at Maui Mall.
Testifying Monday during a preliminary hearing for defendant Alex Hand in Wailuku District Court, Carroll unwrapped a bandage to show how the top portion of her left ring finger was gone. "He bit right through the bone," she said. "And they weren't able to reattach it."
"You will never have that part of your hand again?" Deputy Prosecutor Tiare Nakata asked the 41-year-old security guard.
"No," she replied.
Carroll identified Hand as the attacker she encountered at about 9 p.m. Feb. 20 when she received a call from the manager of Wendy's at Maui Mall saying an intoxicated man was refusing to leave the restaurant.
Two cashiers were behind the counter in a corner and pointed at Hand, who had his phone plugged into an outlet and had two bags of chips that he was eating, Carroll said.
When she asked Hand to leave, "he immediately told me, 'F— you,' '' Carroll said.
"He was agitated," she said. "He just kept rambling on and on."
She said she told Hand to leave several times. "He said, 'Who's going to make me leave? Are they going to make me leave?' He pointed at the cashiers. He stood up, said, 'Let's just go and see if they want me to leave.' ''
Carroll said Hand tried to push past her, putting his hands on her, before she grabbed him by his shirt collar and sleeve and walked him to the door.
"As I shoved him out the door, I said, 'Just leave,' '' Carroll said. "He immediately lunged at me."
She said Hand punched the right side of her head before she grabbed him by the hair and threw him backward, again telling him to "just leave."
He punched her again, Carroll said, and she again grabbed him by his hair and threw him back.
As Hand was getting up, "I kind of got scared," Carroll said, and she looked toward the Ale House next door to see if other security guards might be around.
"Usually, they leave at that point," she said. "People don't usually attack security. They usually run away."
But Carroll said Hand was coming at her again when she put her hands up and was bitten.
She said she put Hand in a chokehold and tried to pull out her finger before they fell to the ground.
"We were rolling around on the ground," she said. "I was trying to bash his head on the ground. At that point, I pulled out my finger. I let him go. I stood up, he stood up and he spit out my finger."
As Hand turned and walked away, she followed and called 911. When Hand turned around and saw Carroll, he began running, she said.
A police dispatcher told her to stop pursuing the suspect, she said. "At that point, I kind of realized, yes, my finger was gone," Carroll said.
She went back to the mall and laid down, feeling light-headed, as police officers and medics arrived. She was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where two staples were put in her finger.
Deputy Public Defender Zach Raidmae asked if Carroll had used her cellphone to call police when Hand was first refusing to leave.
"No, I was just hoping he would leave," she said. "Next time, I will definitely just call the police."
Two days later, Carroll recognized her attacker from a photo taken that Wednesday morning when he was cited for trespassing at Queen Ka'ahumanu Center. About 10 minutes after the photo was taken, Carroll said she saw Hand walking out of McDonald's on Puunene Avenue in Kahului. "I immediately knew that was him," she said, and called 911.
"I walked up to him," she said. "I said, 'You remember me?' I showed him my finger. His eyes got big. He walked away."
She said Hand was wearing the same pants he wore the night he attacked her.
Police officer Shawn Mida, responding to the area of Wakea and Puunene avenues after the 11:10 a.m. call Wednesday, testified he saw Hand walking north on Hukilike Street.
After Carroll identified Hand as her attacker, Mida arrested the suspect.
On Monday, Judge Blaine Kobayashi found there was sufficient evidence to support a first-degree assault charge against Hand, 30.
He is being held in lieu of $20,000 bail at the Maui Community Correctional Center.
Hand is scheduled to be arraigned March 7 in 2nd Circuit Court.
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.