Northern Virginia

Man Pleads Guilty in Stabbing of 8-Year-Old Daughter and Her Mother in Virginia

The charges he faces carry potential sentences of 20 years to life and 5 to 20 years in prison, respectively

A Virginia man has pleaded guilty in a knife attack on his young daughter and her mother in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Javier Mauricio Molina pleaded guilty to both aggravated malicious wounding and malicious wounding, the Prince William County Commonwealth's attorney said.

The attack happened on a Friday night in October 2019, at an apartment complex where the three lived together.

It was the 8-year-old girl's mom who managed to call 911, even though she’d been stabbed. Prince William County Police said officers arrived at the Dominion Ridge Apartments complex on Meandering Way to find Molina carrying a blood-covered child down the stairs. The man put the girl on the ground and then struck her several times, police said.

Neighbors said the noise woke them up. One said she was horrified by the sight of the child bleeding on the ground. 

"It was terrifying. I had never seen anything like that," she said. 

An officer pulled Molina off his daughter; then the suspect began struggling with that officer, police said. Molina continued to fight officers as they tried to force him into two separate cruisers, police said. Eventually, they put him in a police van.

Police rendered first aid on the scene to the girl, who suffered multiple stab wounds.

While treating the girl, police learned that the child's mother had also been injured and was inside a residence. She was found in the kitchen and had been stabbed multiple times, police said.

Both the girl and the woman were flown to a hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries, police say. Both survived.

Molina will be sentenced July 1.

The charges he faces carry potential sentences of 20 years to life and 5 to 20 years in prison, respectively.

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