Pasley

As a man came toward her with a knife in his right hand and his pants and underwear down to his ankles, a San Francisco woman said she was “in shock” and couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“I said, ‘No, no,’ ” the 22-year-old victim recalled on Thursday.

She said the man replied, “Yes, b—-,” as he cornered her in a stall at the Lahaina Harbor bathroom on Sunday morning.

The man had tried to stuff a cloth in the woman’s mouth with his left hand while holding a knife in his right hand. He kept saying, “Shut up, b—-,” said the woman, who called out for help.

“I thought no one was going to come. I was so scared,” she testified during a preliminary hearing Thursday for 54-year-old Alfred Oscar Pasley, who is charged with attempted second-degree murder, attempted first-degree sexual assault, second-degree assault, first-degree terroristic threatening and kidnapping, according to court records.

The woman, who got emotional during a portion of her testimony, said she suffered injuries to her left hand as she blocked the knife the man had been holding so it would not hit her neck. She showed the court her bandaged left hand during the hearing.

She said the man, who was wearing sunglasses and a dark-colored mask, had forced her down to the ground and she suffered bruises and cuts.

The woman said she was able to escape after her brother came into the restroom.

Her brother said during the hearing that he had heard cries for help from the restroom and at first didn’t know it was his sister.

Entering the restrooms and encountering the stall where his sister was cornered, he saw the man and his sister struggling.

He said he asked the man, “Who the f— are you?”

He said his sister told him that the man had a knife. When the attacker turned his head toward him, he saw the man was wearing black sunglasses and a dark face mask.

The victim was able to escape from the man’s grasp and fled, according to her brother, who proceeded to back away from the man while keeping his eye on the knife.

He said the man moved toward him and demonstrated in court how the man made slashing motions with the knife in his hand.

As he exited the restroom, the victim’s brother yelled to alert others of the man with the knife and to call the police.

Police said in a news release Monday that they responded to the harbor around 9:02 a.m. Sunday and found the suspect detained by several bystanders. The victim had been exiting a bathroom stall while the man exited an opposing stall while holding a knife, the news release said.

The victim said she and family members were going parasailing and that the women had gone to the bathroom when the incident occurred.

Maui Police Department Detective Matthew Brown testified that he saw blood drips on the ground and on the bathroom wall at the scene.

A knife with blood on it was recovered along with a sock that had a magenta-colored lipstick similar to what the victim had been wearing.

Deputy Public Defender Ben Lowenthal said there was insufficient evidence presented on the second-degree attempted murder charge and the first-degree attempted sex assault charge.

Lowenthal said there was not enough proof that there was an intent to kill in the case. He added that witnesses gave conflicting testimony, with the victim saying the man’s pants and underwear had been down to his ankles while her brother said the man had shorts on.

But Judge Kirstin Hamman ruled there was sufficient evidence to uphold the charges, including attempted sex assault, noting that the man had his pants and underwear down to his ankles and moved toward the victim, as well as the attempted murder charge, pointing out that the victim had to use her hand in self-defense to keep the knife from hitting her neck.

Deputy Prosecutor J.W. Hupp asked that bail be increased to $500,000 in the case.

But Lowenthal said Pasley is homeless and cannot afford that bail.

Hamman said that due to the allegations and for the safety of the community that she would set bail at $250,000.

She ordered the case to be committed to Circuit Court.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.