A woman is in a coma after she was violently attacked during a break-in Wednesday at the California mansion of Beanie Babies billionaire Ty Warner, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office said.
Russell Maxwell Phay, a 42-year-old from Nevada, was arrested last week after allegedly breaking into a home in Montecito, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The sheriff's office alleges that during the May 21 incident, Phay "violently" beat a woman and then barricaded himself in an upstairs bathroom.
A criminal complaint identified the victim as "L. Malek-Aslanian" and states that she is "comatose due to brain injury" as a result of the attack. The homeowner was identified in the complaint as "T. Warner."
Amber Frost, a communications specialist for the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, confirmed to NBC News that "T. Warner" is Ty Warner.
Representatives for Warner did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Relatives of Phay did not respond to requests for comment, nor did his attorney.
Relatives of the victim, identified via public records and social media as Linda Malek-Aslanian, did not respond to requests for comment.
Malek-Aslanian's LinkedIn profile identifies her as a financial services professional from New York. Authorities did not provide additional details about why she was at Warner's home.
NBC affiliate KSBW of Salinas reported that she previously worked for Warner's hotels division. The complaint describes her as "particularly vulnerable" but does not provide additional details.
KSBY reported that Warner, who is known for being reclusive, was home at the time of the attack, but was not harmed.
When deputies arrived, they found the victim suffering from "severe injuries outside the residence," the sheriff's office news release states. She was immediately rushed to the hospital.
Phay had barricaded himself inside the home. The sheriff’s office said deputies initially did not know if Phay had taken anyone hostage, and called a special enforcement team and crisis negotiation team for assistance.
After learning that no other occupants were in the home, deputies attempted to talk Phay into coming out of the bathroom. Phay, however, " attempted to flee by climbing out of a second-story bathroom window" and jumping to the ground below, the sheriff's office said. He was then apprehended.
He was charged with attempted murder, burglary, kidnapping, and assault, according to the complaint. He is being held on $100,000 bail, and it is unclear if he has retained a lawyer.
Phay was featured in a 2014 San Francisco Chronicle article about a special court exclusively for military veterans. At the time, Phay had been accused of following his wife and threatening her after she took their son to Colorado, according to the article. KSBW also reported that Phay was charged in 2018 with battery and assault, but the case was dismissed last year.
In a separate case in Mt. Shasta, nearly 600 miles north of Montecito, Phay was arrested after he allegedly climbed aboard a transit bus in 2017 and began assaulting people, police records show. One woman told a responding officer that he hit her multiple times with a closed fist and pulled her hair after complaining that someone had stolen his tools.
Another victim, identified in the records as an elderly woman, told authorities that he struck her in the right cheek.
"He acted like a mad man and was talking about someone stealing his tools, but non[e] of knew anything about his tools," the records state.
A man who had been working with Phay at Tesla charging stations in the area told officers that Phay had two tool bags stolen, the records show. When the man saw a bus pull up, he suggested that Phay check "with the bus to see if anyone had seen his tools. He did not expect Phay to enter the bus, let alone start swinging at women on the bus."
The man told officers that he witnessed the assault.
Phay was booked on suspicion of assault and battery. It wasn't immediately clear how the case was adjudicated. Court records in Shasta County do not appear to list any charges associated with the arrest.
