A man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death at her Waialae townhouse did so in self-defense, his lawyer says. Intruder claims he killed
ex-lover in self-defense
By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comHenry Lagmay, 33, is on trial on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of 38-year-old exotic dancer Isabelle Yim-Mortier on March 12, 2001.
He is also charged with breaking into her home with the intent of committing a crime.
Defense attorney Myles Breiner said yesterday during opening statements that Lagmay was suffering from an emotional and mental disturbance when he went to the Tropic Gardens apartment where he had once lived with Yim-Mortier and her 8-year-old son.
Breiner said Lagmay was "torn" between his love for her and his concern for her son whom he believed was being "emotionally abused" by her refusal to quit abusing drugs and prostituting herself.
Breiner said Lagmay did not go to the apartment with the intent to harm Yim-Mortier but stabbed her when she charged him with two knives.
In fact, Lagmay loved her as his "wife," and regarded her son as his "boy," Breiner said.
Deputy prosecutor Glenn Kim said Yim-Mortier had asked Lagmay to leave a few months earlier after telling him their relationship was over, but Lagmay apparently would not accept it.
Kim said that in the early morning hours of March 12, Lagmay cut the screen and broke the glass to her apartment door, walked upstairs to her bedroom and stabbed her five times.
Yim-Mortier bled to death before help arrived.
