California woman stabbed boyfriend in the heart, police say
A California woman was arrested after authorities said she nearly killed her boyfriend during a fight.
Kiana Maciel, 29, was arrested in Los Angeles in October on a warrant. She was booked into the Clark County Detention Center Wednesday on one count of attempted murder and one count of domestic battery resulting in substantial bodily harm, according to jail records.
Maciel is accused of stabbing her boyfriend in the chest on Sept. 29 inside his Las Vegas apartment, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department released Thursday.
Las Vegas police were called around 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 29 to Summerlin Hospital, where Maciel dropped the man off and identified herself to hospital staff as the his girlfriend, witnesses said. One paramedic said they saw a girl in the backseat who looked about 3 years old. Maciel said she would return to the hospital after dropping her kids off with a babysitter, witnesses told police.
Police said by 7 p.m., her white Ford Fusion was spotted on Interstate 15 near Jean, headed to California.
Meanwhile, a nurse told police they had to open the victim’s ribcage to stop the internal bleeding, but she wasn’t sure if the wound penetrated the heart. His heart stopped beating for about 15 minutes, she said.
“There was so much blood over the heart that it was preventing the heart from beating,” the nurse told police.
Police in Los Angeles impounded Maciel’s car on Oct. 1 and arrested the woman on Oct. 7 outside an elementary school, according to the arrest report. Las Vegas police drove down to interview Maciel, who changed her story multiple times.
She first told police her boyfriend was stabbed at work, then at a smoke shop and then by an unknown person but came home bleeding. She then stated he struck her first but she did not have any wounds or photos of wounds.
Maciel said her boyfriend had been arrested for hurting her before in Las Vegas, but she was pregnant with his child so she had recently moved in with him.
On Oct. 11, the victim gave a very brief statement to police that he tried to kick Maciel out, but she stabbed him with a steak knife. The man said Maciel attempted to drive off, but he “crawled” into the car and begged her to take him to the hospital.
The woman was on probation in California and was not allowed to leave the state, she admitted to police.
She is being held on $40,000 bail and is expected to appear in court again March 10.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
