An Augusta woman accused of cutting her former lover with a large kitchen knife during a tussle last year was found guilty of aggravated assault by a jury Tuesday.

Kiana Green cut her ex-boyfriend Gary Davis on his hand, in a Dec. 11, 2018, incident on Crosby Street Place in Augusta. Police said Davis was cut, with a large, purple-handled kitchen knife Green had in her hands as the two fought with each other.

Davis had come from North Carolina to Maine to live with Green, with whom he’d had an on-again, off-again relationship for about two years, but moved out after a few weeks because the relationship didn’t work out. He moved to the Crosby Street Place apartment of Green’s sister, Mikayla Cook and Cook’s boyfriend, which is where the Dec. 11 incident took place.

Green and Davis, according to testimony in the jury trial which wrapped up Tuesday, were in an altercation which began when Green threw a cup of water on Davis while he slept on a couch at her sister’s apartment, after he had called her stupid in a previous phone conversation.

Davis said Green attacked him as he was waking up from sleeping on the couch, striking him with her hands after she threw water on him, so he grabbed her arms to try to stop her attack and told Cook to get her sister out of the apartment.

The incident, which Cook described as a tussle, then moved into the apartment kitchen where Davis again grabbed Green by her arms.

From there testimony about what happened diverged, with Green saying she grabbed a handful of utensils from a dish drainer on the counter which happened to contain the knife that ended up cutting Davis. She said she didn’t see how Davis got cut but said it must have been as she was struggling to pull away from him. She said she picked up the utensils, including the knife, to defend herself because she was scared of him and what he might do to her.

Davis said Green opened a kitchen drawer and removed a knife and, as they struggled, she tried to slash at him with it. He said he lunged at her to try to get her to drop the knife. As they tussled with each other, Davis grabbed Green’s arms, and he was cut on his hand. Green’s sister, Mikayla, was the first to notice, though she didn’t see him get cut.

They stopped fighting and Davis said he sat on the floor and Green left the apartment and went to her apartment on New England Road. Davis later was taken to the hospital, by ambulance. Green, 26, was arrested by Augusta police on a charge of aggravated assault. She said she was about to go to the police department to report what happened when she was approached by an officer who was looking for her.

Much of the argument of the case from both attorneys focused on whether Green acted in self defense and whether she cut Davis intentionally or he was cut accidentally while she was struggling to get out of his grasp in the apartment kitchen.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Madigan, the state’s prosecutor in the case, said Green knew what she was doing when she picked up the knife, and had to know that if you pick up a knife in the middle of a tussle, someone is going to get injured.

“She knew what she was doing and instead of stopping it, she kept doing it,” Madigan said in his closing arguments. “Right through the moment when the knife cut Gary.”

Green’s defense attorney, Walter McKee, said Green was abused by and in fear of Davis and he got cut by the knife as Green was trying to pull away from him.

“The only reason she grabs a knife is Gary is grabbing onto her and she doesn’t know what he’s going to do,” McKee said. “Gary is a pretty dangerous individual. “She grabbed (the knife) with other items because she knew what Gary was capable of, and she’s trying to step away.”

McKee portrayed the victim, Davis, as a felon with a drug conviction on his record, with a violent past who told police inconsistent stories about what happened in the incident.

Green testified that, since 2016, Davis had threatened to kill her with a baseball bat and choked her, and said she was told by another girlfriend of Davis’ that he hit women and had a gun, allegations Davis denied when he was on the stand.

Green said she didn’t report any of his threats or violence against her to police because he was on probation most of the time she knew him and she was afraid he would be sent back to jail, and because she was in love with him and he always said, after the incidents, he would be better.

Madigan said Green’s actions, including inviting Davis to Maine to come live with her, and in returning to the apartment the day of the incident to confront him and throw water on him, showed she was not scared of him. He noted she never told any of the several police officers who interviewed her after the incident that she was scared of him or that he had been violent to her in the past.

Augusta police officers who testified in the two-day trial said there was blood on the kitchen cabinets, under the sink, on the kitchen floor and in the living room floor when they arrived on the scene.

Green is the mother of two sons and works for the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles. At the time of the incident, she worked for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

She sat stoically when the verdict was read, hanging her head. But she cried after leaving the courthouse. She remains out on bail.

Davis works nights for Performance Food Group.

Green was charged with the felony count of Class B aggravated assault, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Superior Court Justice William Stokes, who presided over the trial, said sentencing would take place in late September.

 

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