Woman accused of stabbing boyfriend with samurai sword appears in court

A Camas woman told police she tried to kill her boyfriend with a samurai sword early Saturday morning because she believed he was cheating on her.

Court records say Emily Javier, 30, allegedly told investigators she specifically purchased the sword and made deliberate plans to kill her boyfriend of two years, 29-year-old Alex Lovell.

She hid his cellphone so he couldn’t call for help, attacked him in his sleep, and then called 911 only after she believed he was dead, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.

“I was trying to kill him for cheating. That was my purpose,” she allegedly told Camas police.

Lovell was found inside their shared house with several life-threatening injuries.

He was last known to be hospitalized in critical condition as of late Saturday morning, police said. An update on his condition was unavailable Monday.

Javier appeared Monday morning in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of attempted first-degree domestic violence murder. She wore a suicide-prevention smock — given to inmates who may try to harm themselves with standard jail clothing — and tried to hide her face from the media’s cameras behind her dyed blue-green hair.

Judge Bernard Veljacic set her bail at $350,000. Javier did not qualify for a court-appointed attorney, based on her employment history. But Veljacic provisionally appointed Vancouver attorney Chris Ramsay to help Javier address her bail.

She will be arraigned March 13.

Early-morning incident

Camas police were dispatched at 1:54 a.m. Saturday for a report of a disturbance with a weapon at 2013 N.E. Garfield St.

Javier called 911 to report that she had just stabbed her boyfriend with a sword and thought he was dead, court records state.

As police arrived, Javier walked out of the house with her hands up. She was covered in blood and crying. Javier said, “He’s in there. I just stabbed him. You guys need to help him!” police wrote in the affidavit.

She was taken into custody without incident.

Police said they found Lovell lying in the couple’s bedroom suffering multiple lacerations.

He was treated by the Camas-Washougal Fire Department and transported to a hospital.

Javier told police that she and Lovell had been dating and living together for about two years. She said he “just sits at home all day playing video games and does not do anything to help,” the affidavit states.

About a week ago, she said, she found evidence that Lovell was cheating on her, including a dating app on his cellphone and red hair in the shower drain; the hair was not hers, according to court records.

Javier did not confront Lovell about her suspicions, she said, because when she had in the past, he had denied it. Instead, she said, she went to the mall and purchased a samurai sword and had been thinking about stabbing him with it for the past week, court documents show.

“I thought I was gonna stab him while he was sleeping,” she allegedly told police.

The final straw, she said, was when Lovell came home Friday night and ignored her. She said that “angered her, and she decided tonight was the night she was going to do it,” police wrote in the affidavit.

She hid the sword and two knives she had taped together on her side of the bed. The couple went to bed about 8 or 9 p.m., and she waited for Lovell to fall asleep. She then grabbed the sword and began stabbing Lovell and swinging it at him, according to court records.

Police said detectives served a search warrant at the home and seized a samurai sword and additional knives.