Posted on: Saturday, October 9, 2004

Judge upholds charge in slashing of wife's throat

Advertiser Staff

A woman who was slashed in the throat at a Mai'ili church Monday morning would have died if the gash had been an inch to the left or right, a doctor testified yesterday.

Robert Bonham said Sharie Nihipali would have bled to death.

Honolulu District Judge Clarence Pacarro upheld a charge of attempted murder against Nihipali's estranged husband, John Nihipali Sr., 33, of Nanakuli, who is accused of attacking his wife with a serrated knife at Paradise Chapel.

Sharie Nihipali, 31, who had obtained a restraining order directing her husband to keep away from her, testified he attacked her at the chapel's office.

"I was just trying to hold my neck area and my chin down to stop the bleeding," she said.

She later fled and got help from a passing motorist. She was treated by Bonham at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and released that day.

The judge also upheld an assault charge against the husband for the sliced hand of George Nagato, the church pastor, who tried to help the woman.

John Nihipali is being held on $100,000 bail.