WAILUKU - Before he lost consciousness while lying in blood on his kitchen floor Monday afternoon, a 33-year-old Kahului man told a police officer who had stabbed him, The Maui News reported today.

John Shaniyo identified his attacker as his girlfriend, Rachael Berta, according to police reports filed in court to support a second-degree murder charge against her.

During an initial appearance Wednesday in Wailuku District Court, the 23-year-old

woman pleaded not guilty to the charge. She is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail at the Maui Community Correctional Center. A preliminary hearing for her is scheduled Friday afternoon.

Police and medics responded to the one-bedroom cottage at 107 W. Kauai St., where Shaniyo and Berta were living, after a woman called 911 on a cellular telephone at 2:01 p.m. Monday to report that she had stabbed her boyfriend.

Police officers reported hearing mumbling and moaning from inside the house before finding Shaniyo lying on his left side in a fetal position, surrounded by blood. His intestines were visible through a 4- to 5-inch open wound on his lower stomach, police reported.

An officer who applied pressure on the wound until medics arrived noted that Shaniyo's face was pale, his breathing was shallow and his eyes were rolling back. When the officer asked Shaniyo who had done this to him, "he replied that it was Rachael," the officer reported. When the officer couldn't understand what her last name was, Shaniyo spelled out "Berta" before losing consciousness, according to the police report.

Shaniyo was taken by ambulance to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where he died at 9:55 p.m. Monday. Police said an autopsy done Wednesday showed he died of a single stab wound to his abdomen, which severed a main artery.

Police reported recovering a knife from the ground near Shaniyo.

Neighbors reported hearing a man and woman arguing in the house between 1:30 and 2 p.m. Monday.

One neighbor told police Shaniyo yelled, "If I didn't love you, I would have left you already" before Berta was seen getting into a sedan and driving away from the house.

Police issued an all-points bulletin for Berta.

She was arrested at 3:41 p.m. after police were alerted that she was at Kahului Union Church, where she was talking to two friends from a peer support group.

The friends told police that Berta was participating in a mental health and drug treatment program and had gone to class from 9 a.m. to noon that day. She called one friend at 2:32 p.m. saying she was in "big trouble" and needed to talk, according to police reports.

Worried that she might hurt herself, the friends eventually met her at the church.

One woman told police that Berta said she and her boyfriend argued after he found her cutting herself. Berta reportedly told the friend she wanted to stop Shaniyo from yelling when she stabbed him in the right abdomen with a 5- to 6-inch knife.

Unable to persuade Berta to turn herself in to police, one friend called the program counselor, who also couldn't persuade Berta.

After her arrest, Berta reportedly told police, "I stabbed my boyfriend."

She said she and Shaniyo had lived together for about a year.

Detective Gregg Okamoto, who questioned Berta after her arrest, reported she said she and Shaniyo had argued over their relationship and she became upset.

"I didn't want to hurt him. I was just so angry . . . I was so mad," Berta told the detective.

After she stabbed Shaniyo, she said "he was crying, and she knelt next to him and repeatedly apologized to him," according to the police report.

She said, "I'm not a murderer" before asking for a lawyer to end the police questioning.

The counselor told police that Shaniyo had taken Berta to the program about a month ago because he was concerned about her binge drinking and cutting herself, as well as her violence when she was drunk and upset.

The counselor also reported that Berta was upset after the class Monday because she was planning to end her relationship with Shaniyo, but Berta didn't want to stay to talk more about it.

Since March, Shaniyo worked for Maui Island Traders, a company that delivers and displays ready-made salads at grocery stores, according to the company owner, who declined to give his name.

"He was very outgoing, friendly," the owner said Wednesday. "He was very industrious."

Shaniyo was consistently on time for the job that started at 4 a.m., the owner said.

He said Shaniyo had visited his young son on Oahu over the New Year's Day holiday before returning to Maui on Sunday.

When he didn't show up for work Tuesday, "we didn't know what was going on," the owner said.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.