(WSVN) - They met online but a violent fight left both of them bloodied. And today in court, a South Florida woman had a difficult decision to make; either go to trial and face the possibility of prison time or take a plea deal.
Parts of the video you are about to see are difficult to watch.
Investigative reporter Karen Hensel has the exclusive.
Jalisa Edwards was in a Broward courtroom, Monday morning.
Judge: “Ms. Edwards, good morning.”
Facing charges from a violent night with a man she had met on a dating app.
Karen Hensel: “Prosecutors see him as a victim. How do you see it?”
Jalisa Edwards: “He’s not a victim. I don’t see him, he’s a aggressor.”
It was Feb. 25, 2022.
The man you hear lives in this Plantation home. The woman knocking is Jalisa. They had just started dating.
Jalisa Edwards: “We went to his house. We watched a movie, and then we fell asleep for the next day for our date that we were supposed to have the next day. Yeah. So it’s a pretty simple night.”
But there was nothing simple about what happened the next night after it was clear there was no love connection.
Jalisa Edwards: “I dropped him off and then I sat in my car for a few seconds and I was like, ‘Wait. He has my belongings, phone items.’ I was like, ‘Wait, no. I have to get this stuff back. I can’t just disappear. I want my things back.'”
The man loudly and repeatedly demands Jalisa leave his home.
Man: “Get the [expletive] out of my crib.”
She does not and they argue about money Jalisa says she is owed from their day at a casino.
Watch closely. Just a minute into their argument, he pushes Jalisa. She pushes an appliance off the counter, grabs a knife, drops it and then this.
Jalisa Edwards: “Get the [expletive] off me!”
Jalisa, who did not have her cell phone, sits down at a table.
Man: “Get the [expletive] of my crib.”
Jalisa Edwards: “You have my property, you owe me money, call the police.
They continue to scream at each other and both hold knives at various times through the roughly 20 minutes of chaos. At one point, the fight moves outside.
Man: “Put the knife down, put the knife down.”
Jalisa is seen back inside the home first, throwing things around the room.
And once he comes back in, the situation goes from bad to worse
Jalisa goes at him with a knife.
They fight for control of the knife that he eventually gets and starts to stab her repeatedly as she begs for help
Jalisa Edwards: “Please, please help me. Please help me.”
The video shows him stabbing at her more than 60 times.
Jalisa Edwards: “I thought I was done. I thought I was gone. I thought, I thought about my mom.”
Jalisa Edwards in the video: “Please stop hurting me, please stop hurting me, I’m so sorry.”
Man: “I tried to call the [expletive] police.”
He is still on top of her when Plantation Police officers rush in.
Officer: “Get down, get the [expletive] down now!”
They cuff him but he was not the one who ended up with a mug shot. She was.
The man, who we are not identifying because he is listed as the “victim,” told police: “…I wasn’t trying to hurt her or kill her. I just really wanted her to leave my house…”
Officers wrote he had a “severed tendon in his right pinkie” and a picture shows a cut on his shoulder.
Jalisa Edwards: “My pinkie could have fully came off.”
Jalisa says she had three surgeries, got more than 60 stitches on her hands, along with 10 staples in her head.
Gordon Weekes/Broward public defender: “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Broward public defender Gordon Weekes says their client was the one fighting for her life.
Gordon Weekes: “There is absolutely no justification for that level of violence that he’s using towards her.”
Back in court, the man’s mother said the whole situation could have been avoided.
Victim’s mother: “I hope moving forward that she learns from this. Also, my son, I hope he learns from this.”
Jalisa decided not to roll the dice with a jury trial. She agreed to a plea deal of two years probation and must complete an anger management program.
Jalisa Edwards: “It’s something that did change my life. It taught me a lot. For one, just walk away.”
The Broward State Attorney’s Office called their offer “appropriate and fair” and said “the case was resolved in a manner that both sides found acceptable and appropriate, considering everything that happened.” Jalisa must still pay restitution for damages done inside the home and his medical bills.
Karen Hensel, 7News.
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