An American citizen charged with the murder of a Kenyan nurse has a History of Assaulting Women
James Gomes, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of June Onkundi, a Kenyan-born nurse living in the United States, has a history of violence against health workers.
Gomes is facing a first-degree murder charge and had only been out of prison for four months before killing Ms. Onkundi at the Freedom House Recovery Center in North Durham.
According to court documents, the murder suspect assaulted another female employee who tried to help him.
According to reports, the suspect has a history of assaulting women, most notably in 2005 while working as a janitor at Durham’s Merrick-Moore Elementary School.
“Gomes assaulted a clinical social worker at a Duke Health facility in March 2019. WRAL News discovered a letter written to the court by the victim in that case, warning of Gomes’s potential danger.
“I was thrown to the ground, punched in the nose and face, and strangled until I was blue, almost blacking out,” it says. I might not be alive today if staff had not been able to reach me in time… I would like the court to ensure that Mr. Gomes is imprisoned for the maximum amount of time permitted.”
According to court documents, Gomes was not imprisoned for the maximum allowed time. The maximum sentence implies that Gomes would have been released sometime next month.
