Woman who survived brutal stabbing takes stand

PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — A woman severely wounded during a knife attack in her Yale home told a judge how she and her husband fought off two men before finally chasing them away.

Mara Skinner said Tuesday in Port Huron District Court that she was lying in bed when her husband Paul shouted “Hon, Hon,” before she felt blows to her neck and back.

Skinner was the first witness in a preliminary hearing for her 17-year-old adopted daughter Tia Skinner and two men charged with murder, assault and conspiracy in the Nov. 12 attack on her and the fatal stabbing of her husband.

Skinner said she suffered 26 wounds.

Skinner testified she and her husband told her daughter not to see 18-year-old Jonathan Kurtz. Eighteen-year-old James Preston also was charged in the attack.