LISBON – The victim in a July 7, 2022 stabbing identified defendant Joseph Boyer as the attacker during testimony Monday afternoon, saying “He had a knife in his hand and started attacking my neck.”

The jury trial for Boyer, 52, whose last known address was Ogden Street, East Liverpool, began Monday morning in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court before Judge Scott Washam with jury selection, then opening statements and testimony from three witnesses, including the victim, whose name is not being used because the charges include fourth-degree domestic violence, along with felonious assault, a second-degree felony.

The woman, who traveled from Texas to testify, was answering questions from Columbiana County Deputy District Attorney Tammie Riley Jones about what happened on her Ogden Street, East Liverpool street. She described how Boyer pulled her hair as she slept on the sofa in the living room and screamed at her, then grabbed a knife from the butcher block in the kitchen. He slashed her throat and then she was slashed at the wrist trying to block his attack.

As he was cutting it, the woman said she told him he didn’t have to do that and he said he did.

“He said he had to and he was going to kill me,” she said.

The other two witnesses, East Liverpool police officer Jay Lane and the victim’s friend, Edward Gregory, said she identified Boyer as the person who cut her throat, no one else.

Lane responded to East Liverpool City Hospital for a report of a woman with stab wounds shortly after starting his shift at 7:30 a.m. that day and recognized the victim, who was there with Gregory. She had three large open wounds in the middle of her neck down to her collarbone and her wrist was wrapped where it had been cut.

Lane said she was aware, coherent and able to answer questions. he said “she advised that Joseph Boyer did it.”

Gregory, who first met the victim three years ago, testified under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Steve Yacovone that he received a call from her on the morning of July 7, 2022 asking him to pick her up, saying that she is worried that something is going on. to happen to her. She said Boyer was at her house. At some point in the 30 minutes it took her to get there, she called him again to see where he was.

When he arrived she was walking in the driveway and her blouse was covered in blood and she had a cut on her neck. She wanted to go to him to be cleaned up, but he said he insisted on taking her to the hospital, noticing the gaping wounds.

He said Boyer was walking in the driveway behind her and was being very aggressive, hitting the driver’s side door and window.

“Then he said he was going to kill me too” Gregory said.

He said the victim was very coherent and was transported to St. Elizabeth Mercy Health in Youngstown. He went there and said he also took her to the police station after she was released the next day to give her statement and he gave one too.

During questioning by Boyer’s court-appointed defense attorney, T. Robert Bricker, Gregory admitted that he and the victim had a small relationship, but understood that she and Boyer were already separated and that he was restricted from a proper view. to a contactless order. After the attack, she stayed with Gregory for several weeks.

Bricker questioned Gregory about the fact that he told police that Boyer threatened to beat him up, but then testified that he said he was going to kill him. Gregory told him that Boyer said “And you’re dead.”

He asked if she liked the victim and she said she did but said “I’m just here to say what happened.” Bricker then asked if his testimony was influenced by his feelings for the victim. Gregory said no, saying again “I’m just here to say what I saw.”

Speaking about taking her to the hospital, Gregory told Bricker: “If you’d seen her, you’d have taken her to the hospital too, if you’d had any sense.”

During her testimony, the victim said she received calls and letters from the defendant after the attack. When asked what she didn’t want to do, she answered “Be here.”

Asked if she attacked Boyer or if she used a knife against him, she said no.

When Bricker questioned her, she admitted that she was still drunk from the night before, but not to the point where she couldn’t function. She said when Boyer was drinking he would stagger and Bricker asked him if he was that drunk, how could he do all that if he was that drunk?

“He was awake enough to know what he was doing” she said.

Lane also testified about what happened when police went to the Ogden Street address, where the victim asked them to check on her roommate, who was still there with Boyer. Blood was found on the door and at one point Boyer started to climb out the window and then crawled back inside. Police had told him to get out and he eventually went in, finding a pool of blood by the couch and two knives with blood on them, including a 9-inch knife with a serrated blade and a 12-inch knife. He said Boyer had blood on his clothes, which was collected, and blood on his hands. He said he had no defensive injuries. When asked if Boyer denied causing the victim’s injuries, he said no.

Lane knew there was no no-contact order barring Boyer from having any contact with the victim because of a domestic violence conviction a month earlier in June 2022.

Several photographs of the victim’s injuries, blood on the door, and photographs of the defendant and his clothing were submitted and shown to the jury. Defense counsel showed photos of Boyer showing what appeared to be a cut on his forehead and asked Lane about it, but Lane said he couldn’t tell if it was dried blood or a cut. At the time, he asked Boyer if he was okay and if he needed medical attention. He said Boyer said no, he didn’t need medical attention.

During opening statements, both Jones and Bricker spoke briefly to the 11 men and one woman juror with two alternates, with Jones explaining what the evidence would show, including a statement from Boyer that said “My girlfriend cheated on me, so I cut her throat.” He wasn’t supposed to be there because of the recent domestic violence conviction involving the same victim.

Bricker described his client as a middle-class man who had previously been married for 24 years and had children. He met the victim in 2018 and they lived together and had a relationship that declined. He said Boyer will testify and be honest and truthful and they will hear his version of events.

“Listen to the evidence with an open mind” Bricker said.

The trial is scheduled to resume today at 8:30 a.m.

Boyer previously entered a guilty plea to the charges in January 2023, but then a month later filed a motion to withdraw, which was denied, after which he was sentenced to prison. The appeals court ruled that the trial court erred in refusing to withdraw the guilty plea. A charge of attempted murder that was part of the original indictment had already been dismissed by the state over legal issues.

He has remained in jail since the day of the incident on a $100,000 cash bond.

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