A woman was left in a coma after a chaotic incident at the Montecito mansion of Beanie Babies billionaire Ty Warner last week that officials said involved a violent break-in and an attempted kidnapping.
Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies — the stuffed toys that became a huge fad in the late 1990s — was home at the time of the midday attack, according to a criminal complaint, but he was not hurt. The injured woman, identified in the complaint as L. Malek-Aslanian, was left in a coma after a serious brain injury.
The woman’s relationship to Warner wasn’t immediately clear; she was identified by some local news outlets as a financial services executive.
Warner has owned his Montecito home for years and is known as a reclusive executive who expanded his business empire from toys to luxury hotels in the early 2000s.
Amber Frost, a spokesperson for the Santa Barbara County district attorney’s office, said she didn’t have an update on the woman’s medical status as of Tuesday.
Russell Maxwell Phay, 42, was arrested in the attack after a standoff with law enforcement that ended when he jumped from a second-floor window of the mansion and was arrested, according to a news release from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
Phay, of Nevada, is accused of breaking into the mansion on Fairway Road around 4:30 p.m. May 21, deputies said.
When law enforcement arrived after a call about a possible break-in, they found the woman outside the home and severely injured. Deputies quickly summoned an ambulance.
But they were concerned about hostages or other victims in the home, so deputies surrounded the mansion before going inside. After searching the home, deputies confirmed that the other occupant, Warner, had safely gotten out and that Phay was barricaded in an upstairs restroom.
Officials tried to talk him into surrendering, but instead, he climbed out of the second-story window and jumped to the ground, where he was apprehended, deputies said.
It wasn’t immediately clear why Phay was in Santa Barbara County, but officials said they did not believe he knew either of the home’s occupants.
Phay was arraigned Friday in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, where he faced charges of attempted murder, attempted burglary, kidnapping, assault and obstructing a law enforcement officer. He pleaded not guilty to all charges, Frost said. It was not immediately clear if Phay had obtained an attorney.
Details weren’t immediately available on Phay’s criminal history, but prosecutors said he had numerous prior convictions and had served time in prison or jail. He was being held on $100,000 bail.
Phay was interviewed for a 2014 story in the San Francisco Chronicle about a then-new veterans court in which he participated, receiving treatment and mentorship after having served time in prison in Colorado for an incident in which he threatened his wife. He was identified in the story as an Army combat soldier.
“I am fully trained for combat,” he said at the time. “I have been trained to eliminate you. I know that sounds crazy, but it is true.”
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