Victims of a bloody stabbing in Columbia last year described Tuesday in Howard County Circuit Court how they were repeatedly attacked by a man who prosecutors said was obsessed with the daughter of one of the victims.

Gregory Imes, 27, of no fixed address, faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of first- and second-degree assault, and a burglary count, for the non-fatal stabbing of Maria Elena Cokley, 52, formerly of Columbia, and Reginald Dennis Crudup, 52, of Columbia on Sept. 27, 2008, at Cokley’s Columbia home.

Judge Richard Bernhardt is presiding over the trial.

In opening arguments Tuesday, Assistant State’s Attorney James Dietrich described how Imes had been dating Maria Cokley’s daughter, Camille, 22, and had become increasingly obsessed with her before she ended the relationship.

“As time went on, Mr. Imes became more possessive, more controlling, more paranoid,” Dietrich said.

Police said that Imes entered the rear of Cokley’s residence through a sliding glass door, using a large rock to break the window, and then went upstairs and stabbed Cokley and Crudup, according to charging documents.

Dietrich said that before the stabbing, Imes had been repeatedly calling the younger Cokley, attempting to make contact with her after the relationship had ended. His obsession culminated in the burglary and stabbing, according to Dietrich.

But Imes' attorney, public defender Louis Willemin, told Bernhardt that the stabbing had been one impulsive act and that prosecutors were unfairly attempting to ascribe a “lead up” to the stabbing. “What the court is going to hear is of an extremely impulsive act,” Willemin said, that mitigated the circumstances of the stabbing.

Following opening arguments, Maria Cokley took the stand and described being awoken on Sept. 27, 2008 by a “loud smashing sound” and “footsteps pounding up the stairs.”

Cokley described Crudup trying to shield her from Imes as Imes approached her and described watching the two men struggling on the stairs. “They were battling at it. They are about the same build. They were really going at it,” she testified.

At one point, Imes freed himself from Crudup and attacked her with the knife demanding to know where her daughter was, she said. She fended off his stabbing motions with her arm and Crudup soon came to her aid again, she said, pulling Imes down the stairs.

Maria Cokley was transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Since the stabbing, she is still unable to clench a fist or hold anything of any weight with her left hand, she said.

Reginald Crudup also testified, saying he spent a month at the shock trauma center as a result of his struggle with Imes.
 
Imes is being held by the Maryland Department of Corrections on a two-year sentence for a different case, according to Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for Howard County State’s Attorney Dario Broccolino. He faces life in prison if convicted of the attempted murder counts, Kirwan said.

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