The troubled St. Augustine woman who randomly stabbed a priest last week was held without bail Tuesday after a court hearing.
In pushing to keep Arieana Gibbs behind bars, prosecutors called to the stand a McDonald’s worker she allegedly attacked before stabbing Fr. Matthew Marino soon after.
Emmy Burgos testified Tuesday that she was cleaning the drink station just after 7 am when Gibbs, 22, approached her.
“She took my arm my left arm really strong and she said something to me,” Burgos told the court. “I don’t remember what was it…She said something to me and then she took out a knife and tried to stab me in my arm.”
The stunned worker ran back to the kitchen and alerted her co-workers.
“I got shocked and I started crying and shaking a lot ,” she said. “And then I called my boyfriend to pick me up and that was it.”
Burgos identified Gibbs in the courtroom and was asked if she was still afraid of of her.
“Yeah,” she said. “I can’t even look at her right now.”
Burgos began to tear up at that point before leaving the stand and sitting with her boyfriend in the gallery.
With both her hands and feet shackled and wearing glasses and blue prison garb, Gibbs said little during the hearing but appeared to listen attentively.
Her lawyer, James Hubbard, declined to cross examine Burgos.
“At this time my client doesn’t wish to participate in this hearing and I don’t have any witnesses,” he said.
Prosecutor Sarah Thomas said Gibbs posed a public threat and should not be offered a bond package.
“It’s a very alarming set of facts,” she said. “The defendant attacked two individuals.”
In arguing for bail, Hubbard said Gibbs had local ties, no prior felony convictions, and had a record of making court appearances.
But Judge R. Lee Smith denied the bid.
“Facts of this case are particularly alarming they are severe,” he said. “These attacks were random and there were multiple victims.”
Marino suffered a punctured lung in the assault but was released from the hospital Tuesday and is expected to fully recover.
Church officials have stressed their forgiveness of Gibbs.
“A question we do get asked often is, ‘Do you forgive this woman who did this horrible thing to Father Matt?'” Trinity Parish Assistant Rector Curt Benham told First Coast News. “Because we have been forgiven completely by God, the answer is ‘yes,’ we do forgive this woman.”
