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HOLLADAY — A homeless man accused of stabbing and nearly killing a 58-year-old Holladay resident who hired him to do work was charged on Friday with attempted murder.
Daimen Mikel, 25, whose address is listed in court documents as “unknown,” is also facing an aggravated burglary count in 3rd District Court. Both charges are first-degree felonies, and bail was set at $500,000.
On Aug. 22, Unified police were called to the area of 4600 South and 2200 East where they found the homeowner “bleeding from several stab wounds on his head and neck and covered in blood from his injuries,” according to charging documents.
A neighbor had heard the man yelling for someone to call police and then saw him being stabbed by another man, the charges state.
At the hospital, police interviewed the homeowner who said “he hired a homeless man named Daimen to help him pack boxes and drove Daimen to his residence. (He) recalled Daimen asking him if he was home alone. (The homeowner) went to the kitchen sink and was washing his hands when Daimen stabbed him in the face,” the charges state. “Daimen stabbed (the man) multiple times in the head and neck, and (the homeowner) thought that Daimen was going to kill him.”
Doctors said the homeowner was stabbed 20 times, including “a life-threatening stab wound very near the left vertebral artery,” according to the charges.
Police did not find Mikel that day. But the next day, firefighters from Unified Fire Authority spotted a man who matched the suspect’s description in the area of 2300 East and 4400 South, according to police. Crews found that Mikel had stabbed himself and threw the knife into some nearby bushes, the charges state.
When interviewed at the hospital, Mikel told police he stabbed himself “because he was at a house the previous night where he was going to be killed. (The detective) asked Mikel who tried to kill him, and Mikel said he received a ‘message’ from the shelter,” according to charging documents.
