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MIAMI (CBSMiami) — A Miami woman has been put into a coma after she was allegedly attacked by a roommate she found just a week earlier on Craigslist.
Danielle Jones has been in that condition at the Ryder Trauma Center since Valentine’s Day, her mother told CBS4.
“She has severe brain trauma, due to the extensive amount of time her brain was deprived of oxygen because the perpetrator choked her,” the victim’s family posted on Facebook.
Police say her attacker is 35-year-old Byron Mitchell, who is now locked up without bond, charged with attempted murder.
He told police he and Danielle were in a relationship but Danielle’s mother, Aimee Cabo Nikolov, says Mitchell was her daughter’s brand new roommate whom she found after placing an ad on Craigslist.
“There was no relationship. She wasn’t even there while he stayed there. She was at my brother’s,” Nikolov says.
She explained that Danielle shared a bottle of wine with Mitchell and a friend on Valentine’s Day, a day after Danielle’s 23rd birthday.
Some time after the friend went home, Danielle was viciously attacked.
It left Danielle needing a blood transfusion and 300 stitches to put back her mutilated face.
Nikolov says it was Mitchell, himself, who called 911.
“What he said in his original police report is that she attempted to come at him with a knife three times, and what he did, he did in self-defense,” said Nikolov.
It nearly killed her.
“He admits to banging her head against the floor, he admits to choking her,” said Nikolov.
With only one side of the story being told to investigators, Nikolov’s focus is on helping Danielle heal.
“I hope more than anything that my daughter makes it through this. That she lives through this. That this doesn’t haunt her for the rest of her life.”
On Sunday, Danielle opened her eyes.
“We’re going to be okay. We’re going to make it through this,” her mother can be heard saying on a video she recorded of her daughter’s first signs of coming out of the coma.
A GoFundMe page has been dedicated to Danielle Jones’ recovery.
