Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Rama
Barba used a sword similar to the one pictured.
By Forum Staff
An East Elmhurst woman has been convicted at trial of savagely assaulting her boyfriend with a samurai sword in June of 2016, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced on Monday.
Karla Barba, 40, was convicted of second-degree assault and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child after a nearly three-week-long trial. She faces up to seven years in prison when she is sentenced on Feb. 21.
According to trial testimony, on June 8, 2016, Barba argued with her live-in boyfriend, Franklin Larrea, in the bedroom of the victim’s 12-year-old son. Larrea pulled the woman from the boy’s room and Barba grabbed a nearby samurai sword and hit the 40-year-old man in the head. The sword was inside the blade’s sheath the first time she struck Larrea. The scabbard fell off the sword as Barba struck the victim a second and third time—these blows sliced into his left forearm and wrist.
According to trial testimony, the blade sliced so deep the victim lost a significant amount of blood. Larrea was taken to a nearby hospital and given an emergency blood transfusion that saved his life. However, deep cuts to the victim’s wrist and arm severed nerves and tendons.
“This was a horrific attack and it is amazing the victim survived. The walls and doors of the apartment were splattered with blood and the floors covered in puddles of blood,” Brown said. “The defendant called the incident an accident. The jury, however, thought differently and after weighing all the evidence, convicted the woman of assault. The defendant now faces a lengthy term of incarceration.”
