The Bangor woman accused of attacking someone with a knife did so out of self-defense, her lawyer said.
Sammantha Johnson, 36, was arrested Thursday night after she allegedly attacked a woman on Jan. 24. Johnson is charged in Penobscot County Superior Court with one felony count each of aggravated assault and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.
She had her first court appearance Friday afternoon. Johnson allegedly stabbed the woman’s left ear and cheek and right forearm, Penobscot County Assistant District Attorney Alice Clifford said.
The stabbing happened at Johnson’s home on Larkin Street, which she owns with her now-deceased husband. He died Jan. 3, days before she was released Jan. 12 after serving a six-month sentence in Penobscot County Jail, her attorney, Deven Soondar said.
When Johnson returned home there were drug traffickers squatting in her vacant house, Soondar said. In the weeks since she had been trying to get them off her property.
Johnson had talked to police about the squatters before the stabbing, Soondar said.
Three people, including the woman who was allegedly stabbed, barged into Johnson’s house without permission on Jan. 24, Soondar said.
Every time Johnson asked them to leave, the people would have a gun on the table, he said. Johnson had a pocket knife on her, as she usually does, and was simply defending herself, Soondar said.
It was self-defense, he said.
“What was I supposed to do?” Johnson said in court, before Soondar cut her off.
Johnson allegedly left the house immediately after the stabbing, according to a Bangor police report filed in court.
The woman had serious, but not life-threatening, injuries, police said. She is homeless and had been living in the Larkin Street house for about a month and a half, she told police.
Before the stabbing, Johnson had told the woman she had an hour to gather her belongings and leave, the woman told police. Johnson made a comment about how there were needles everywhere in and around the woman’s room and “it spiraled out of control from there,” the woman told police.
At that point the woman told Johnson to leave the area and shoved Johnson to get away, the police report said. Then Johnson allegedly “swung” at her with a knife, the report said.
The woman told police Johnson threatened to kill her. No witnesses told police that they heard Johnson threaten to kill the woman, the police report said.
The woman told police after she was released from the hospital she planned to return to the house Johnson owns, which police advised against, according to court records.
There is probable cause Johnson committed the crime, Judge Harris Mattson said. Mattson said it is “curious” that so many people were involved in the attack, which does give some credence to what Soondar said.
“Quite a bizarre case, I have to say,” Mattson said.
Johnson’s bail was set at $2,000 cash and she remains in the Penobscot County Jail.
