CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A St. Thomas food service worker has been arrested for allegedly punching and stabbing her live-in lover as he slept in their bed, authorities said.
Irish Adam, 28, of Bayonne, New Jersey was arrested about 3 a.m. Monday and charged with third-degree assault-domestic violence, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
Police responded to a home in Estate Tutu after her unnamed boyfriend called 911 emergency dispatchers to report the incident. When officers arrived, they found the boyfriend’s arm bleeding and Adam “covered in blood,” according to the VIPD.
The injured man stood outside his home and told police that as he was sleeping, Adam “attacked him with a knife, because she believed that he spilled soda on her side of the bed,” court records indicate.
Officers observed that there was “a substantial amount of blood dripping” from a stab wound to the man’s forearm and an ambulance was called to the scene. But the man decided not to go to the Schneider Regional Medical Center for treatment.
Inside the house, police found Adam bleeding from cuts to her face and arm, and she was detained as police investigated, according to a sworn police affidavit. Officers said the home was in disarray “with blood and glass scattered throughout.”
Police collected evidence at the scene, including the knife apparently used in the stabbing.
Investigators interviewed the victim, who said Adam woke him up by punching him and started yelling about soda spilled on her side of the bed, court records said.
The man said as he tried to leave the home, Adam grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the arm. She then began to throw glass jars around the house, and picked up a shard from the floor and cut her own face, the police report said. At that point, he left the house and called 911.
Adam was transported to the St. Thomas hospital for treatment and booked into jail where she was held without bail as per the territory’s domestic violence statute.
At her advice-of-rights hearing Wednesday, Territorial Public Defender Alexia Furlow asked if police checked Adam for other injuries or bruising before she was placed under arrest, but the officer said it was impossible to tell because she was “covered in blood.”
Assistant Virgin Islands Attorney General Brenda Scales said Adam was a native of New Jersey and has lived on St. Thomas for about three years.
Adam has a history of arrests for petty crime in Montana, Florida and Tennessee, Scales said, and was arrested in 2014 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Tennessee news accounts relate that Adam, who was 20 at the time, had been train hopping around the country, and she and a 31-year-old man were charged with assaulting each other during a dispute. Adam suffered stab wounds, and police said they found her in possession of a knife, and the other person arrested also had a knife.
Charges against Adam in that case were dismissed days after her arrest, according to Tennessee court records.
Adam’s mother said during Wednesday’s court hearing that the incident was out of character for her daughter, and she was concerned for Adam’s well being. The mother said she would be willing to travel to the territory to serve as a third-party custodian while Adam awaits trial.
Superior Court Magistrate Judge Miguel Camacho agreed. But Judge Camacho said Adam must seek a mental health evaluation and treatment after she’s released from jail on an unsecured bond.
Adam’s boyfriend also expressed concern about the state of her health.
Adam said on social media that she is affiliated with at least one restaurant on St. Thomas, but did not say in what capacity.