A Chester man has been held over for court on all counts for allegedly stabbing his boyfriend in January and stealing his car, then fleeing to Lehigh County before allegedly stealing a second vehicle from Berks County.
Umar K. Presbery, 29, is facing charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery of a motor vehicle, reckless endangerment, possessing an instrument of crime and theft by unlawful taking in the Jan. 2 incident that began shortly after midnight outside the Holiday Inn Express in Tinicum Township.
Presbery is also facing one charge of receiving stolen property in Dauphin County, where he was apprehended later in the day.
Magisterial District Judge Mary Hopper heard from Tinicum Officer Jonathan Downs, who responded to the call after the victim came into the Holiday Inn at 1010 Taylor Ave. covered in blood.
Downs told Assistant District Attorney Beth Ramos that there was a large amount of blood on the hotel’s front desk and floor and he could see that the victim had suffered multiple slash and stab wounds to his face, arms, legs and chest.
Downs described the facial wounds as “deep and very wide” slashes, some running almost the length of his face from his scalp to jaw line.
The victim was distraught and having trouble breathing, Downs said, and appeared to believe he was dying. But Downs said he was able to identify Presbery as his attacker and provided most of the identifying information for him to police before he was taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center for treatment.
“He tried to write (Presbery’s) name in his own blood on the floor,” Downs said.
Tinicum Detective Sean Ryan said the victim had already been taken to the hospital by the time he arrived on scene, but he did find a large pool of blood in the parking lot and at the front desk.
Ryan said there was surveillance video from a distance showing the victim running from where the car had been parked into the Holiday Inn, but there was no footage of the stabbing itself.
The victim’s vehicle and cellphone were taken, but Ryan said license plate readers showed it heading toward I-95 north. Investigators were able to track the vehicle using OnStar and the victim’s phone, which was in the car, was traced as well.
State troopers located the vehicle on the side of Interstate 78 in Lehigh County unoccupied, Ryan said. The victim’s cellphone was still inside along with two knives, though Ryan told defense attorney Luke Mercurio that he had not yet substantiated whether either was used in the attack.
DNA swabs taken from the vehicle also had not been sent off for evaluation at the time of the hearing because Presbery was only just returned to Delaware County last week and there was no comparable sample to test against until that time, Ryan said.
Ryan said Presbery was ultimately apprehended about 4 p.m. on Jan. 2 in Harrisburg in another stolen vehicle. Troopers previously said the second car had been stolen from Greenwich Township in northern Berks County.
Ryan said he later interviewed the victim, the victim’s mother and a friend who had been with the victim and Presbery in the hours before the attack, and learned that the victim and Presbery had been in a romantic relationship for about five years.
Mercurio did not call any witnesses and reserved argument. Presbery is scheduled for formal arrangement at the Delaware County Courthouse in Media May 8.
