From Andy Furillo:
A man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death outside a south Sacramento hospital testified today that he held a knife against his chest and meant to kill himself before he turned the blade on his victim.
Paso Deshawn Harrison, 32, said that the victim, Laura Yvonne Steward, told him to "go ahead and kill yourself," then tried to grab the knife away from him.
"We struggled over the knife," Harrison testified. "She got control over it and then I got control of it back."
Their 17-month-old son was strapped in a seat in the rear of the car.
Witnesses said they saw Steward, 31, emerge from the car and then collapse in the parking lot of Methodist Hospital.
Harrison said he did not remember stabbing Steward.
"Next thing I remember, I got blood on me, I've got a knife in my hand and I'm driving," Harrison testified.
He said he saw a policeman at a south Sacramento area restaurant, got out of the car and walked up to the officer and "I think I asked him to shoot me."
Harrison had attempted to kill himself by drinking Liquid Drano before four days before the July 8, 2008, attack on Steward. He had been placed in the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center and released the day before Steward's death.
Robert Saria, the attorney who is representing Harrison in the Sacramento Superior Court trial before Judge Michael T. Garcia, said there is no dispute that his client killed Steward. He said he is pushing to have Garcia, who is hearing the case without a jury, find his client guilty of second-degree murder.
On cross-examination, Deputy District Attorney Noah Phillips asked Harrison several times if it's true that he really did not plan to kill himself the day he killed Steward. Harrison sat silent for several minutes before Garcia declared a mid-afternoon recess.
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