Husband says wife attacked him with knife

An Aspen woman is facing a possible prison term over charges that she attacked her husband with a knife on Christmas.

Jann Elliot, 38, was arrested early Christmas morning after police showed up at her home on Lone Pine Road, in response to a call from her husband, Blair Elliot.

She has been charged with second-degree assault and menacing with a deadly weapon; both are felonies. If convicted, she could be sentenced to up to three years in prison for assault, and up to two years for menacing.

According to police, the couple had been out to dinner on Christmas Eve with Blair’s brother, sister-in-law, and the other couple’s children.

After dinner, the police report states, Jann Elliot returned home with the children and the other three adults stayed out until around 2 a.m. At that point, according to reports, the adults returned to the Lone Pine home and Blair joined his wife. But according to statements given to the police, Jann was not happy about the way the evening had gone.

The two began fighting shortly after 2 a.m., according to police reports. Blair told police that Jann started punching and scratching him, and that he pushed her away and then went downstairs to lie down on the couch in the living room.

According to the police report, Jann followed him downstairs, grabbed a carving knife out of the kitchen and began “waving” it at him, declaring, “You ruined Christmas Eve.”

Blair apparently tried to grab the knife and sustained cuts to his hand, which required four stitches at the hospital emergency room and may have resulted in a severed nerve, police reported.

Blair also sustained cuts to other parts of his body, although police reports were unclear as to the nature and cause of those wounds.

At some point, police say, Blair took the knife, grabbed others from a rack in the kitchen and threw them all off a balcony. They were later recovered by police.

He then called police, and when they showed up he told one officer, “She’s nuts, she’s absolutely psycho!” according to a police report.

Jann Elliot was taken to the Pitkin County Jail for the night, but was released on $7,500 bond the next day, according to jail officials. Her case will be tried in Pitkin County District Court, before Judge J.E. DeVilbiss.