Hahn's husband testifies at Broyhill murder trial in Raleigh
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Nation Hahn took the witness stand Tuesday at Jonathan Broyhill's murder trial and talked about the day Broyhill attacked his wife with a large kitchen knife.
"She called my name. She screamed Nation, but she also screamed Jon," Nation recalled. "She screamed out 'He's trying to kill me.'"
Nation said he was upstairs at the time, and ran down to a horrific scene.
"There was blood on the floor and I could see Jamie's legs sticking out ... and I looked up and Jon was standing over her with a knife," said Nation.
Before the graphic testimony about the attack, Nation talked about how he met his wife Jamie who said he had a crush on when they attended UNC Chapel Hill together and he eventually convinced to marry him.
Nation also spoke about how he met Broyhill - who he had known since high school from their hometown of Lenoir. Hahn said they first met through church and Broyhill went on to be best man at Jamie and Nation's wedding.
After college, Jamie Hahn became a well-known Democratic Party political strategist. She hired Broyhill to keep the books and do other work for her consulting company Sky Blue Strategies.
On the witness stand Tuesday, Nation Hahn spoke about issues that began cropping up with unpaid bills for political campaigns - including the power being shut off at one campaign office.
Nation also said Broyhill told the couple he had multiple sclerosis, needed gall bladder surgery, and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
None of it was true, and even though the Hahns drove him to doctor's appointments and waited for him, he never actually saw a doctor.
The issues came to a head with the campaign of Congressman Brad Miller. Jamie did the fundraising, and she hired Broyhill to do the accounting and financial reporting to the Federal Election Commission.
Broyhill's attorneys admit that between 2011 and 2013, he wrote himself checks from the campaign account totaling more than $46,500.
But in 2012, Miller announced he was not running for re-election and the campaign began to wind down. Broyhill prepared a draft statement that said that Miller's personal loans to his own campaign had been repaid and that the campaign checking account had a balance of over $60,000 when it was actually overdrawn.
Jamie Hahn realized there was a problem when a Time Warner bill collector contacted her about an unpaid bill and said the check written to cover the amount had bounced.
Jamie and Broyhill were to meet at her home on April 22, 2013 to talk about the issues. Her husband Nation came home early that afternoon and saw them talking before heading upstairs. That's where he was when Jamie started screaming.
Nation said he ran down and Broyhill immediately started moving towards him with an eight-inch kitchen knife.
"I tried to grab the blade," Nation told jurors Tuesday as he described how he tried to fight off Broyhill.
"I was also screaming at Jamie to get out of the house," said Nation.
Nation said Jamie got up and ran and he was able to disengage from Broyhill and get out too.
"I ran through the house and got out a side door," he recalled.
Nation said he immediately went to find Jamie and was screaming to neighbors to call 911.
"I remember telling her I loved her," said Nation.
An ambulance arrived, but 29-year-old Jamie died at WakeMed two days later after multiple surgeries that failed to save her life. Nation Hahn suffered serious cuts to his hands fighting off Broyhill, and had to undergo surgeries and rehabilitation.
"I didn't realize my hands had been cut at the time," Nation testified.
After the attack, Broyhill attempted suicide in the Hahn's home by slashing his wrists and abdomen with the knife.
Broyhill's attorneys don't deny that he attacked the Hahns. He's charged with first-degree murder, but the defense maintains the attack was not premediated, and therefore he should be convicted of second-degree murder.
In her opening statement last week, defense attorney Caroline Elliot told the jury that Broyhill did not go to the Hahn's home with the intent to kill anyone but himself. Elliot called him a man with "deep problems" who lied repeatedly to his best friends and was "overwhelmed by life."
The prosecution, however, counters that Broyhill purchased the knife and brought it with him to the home - pointing to premeditation.
Broyhill faces first-degree murder charges, two charges of attempted first-degree murder, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
The jury of five men and seven women has to decide between those charges and a possible lesser charge of second-degree murder.
