The teen couple charged with the attempted first-degree murder of a girl’s father are being held on a $1 million bail.
Joshua Fithian, 18, and Gabriella Laws, 18, are accused of brutally attacking Robert Laws, 59, in his bedroom with a meat tenderizer and a wooden rod. Fithian and Gabriella Laws appeared in Sarpy County Court on Monday (May 10), the Omaha World-Herald reports.
The Bellevue Police Department responded to the call reporting the attack around 2 a.m. on January 17. Robert Laws was unresponsive when his wife found him. He had to be placed in a medical coma at the Nebraska Medical Center and was later moved to a rehabilitation hospital, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Though Robert Laws didn’t remember the attack when authorities spoke with him in February, he pointed to Fithian as the possible culprit.
That’s because Fithian wasn’t happy about no longer being allowed to stay in the Laws family’s house past midnight, authorities say.
Gabriella Laws apparently told investigators she “didn’t do it, but if I did it in my sleep — I don’t know.”
Investigators aim to use DNA evidence to confirm whether Fithian or Gabriella Laws were present at the scene and using the meat tenderizer and wooden rod.
Photos: Getty Images, Sarpy County Jail