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BURLEY, Idaho — Police say a man stabbed a woman and goaded her 2-year-old son into kicking and stabbing her.
David James Gifford, 36, is charged with felony counts of domestic battery, injury to a child and attempted strangulation, the Times-News reported.
Deputies were called about 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving to a mobile home on East 16th Street in Burley where they found Gifford running from the home. After a brief chase, deputies lost him.
A woman at the house took deputies to the victim, who was lying on a couch in the living room with stab wounds on her back, marks on her neck and face and fresh blood on her clothing.
She told police Gifford grabbed her hair and was pulling her around, tried to choke her, kicked and punched her and stabbed her with a knife.
The woman said Gifford also told her 2-year-old son to kick her and to stab her with the knife, which the boy did.
Gifford told her that he was going to have her 2-year-old "kill her."
Police say the boy stabbed her twice on her right shoulder. The woman also had bruises along her arms and legs, around her eye, nose and her throat.
The woman who answered the door said Gifford had called her asking for a ride to the bank so he could stay at a local motel.
Inside the home, the television screen was broken a light bulb shattered and scattered on a bathroom floor and food had been thrown all over the kitchen.
Felony domestic battery can be punished by 20 years in prison, felony injury to a child up to 10 years and felony attempted strangulation by 15 years.
Gifford was arrested and charged Nov. 29 and a preliminary hearing is set for Friday in Cassia County Magistrate Court.
