Oct 30, 2021 3 min read

A Monessen woman accused of assaulting another woman inside a Charleroi home that left her with injuries for which she remains hospitalized nearly three weeks later, allegedly texted the victim that she would “chop her head off” in the month leading up to the incident, according to testimony at her preliminary hearing.

District Judge Eric Porter ordered Geena Maria Shrader, 28, of 1127 Second St., to stand trial on all charges, including felony counts of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and burglary, along with misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment, simple assault and strangulation.

Alexcia Matinsky, the woman Shrader is accused of assaulting in the early hours of Oct. 10, remains on a ventilator at a Pittsburgh hospital with a torn trachea, according to testimony at Friday morning’s hearing.

“Her recovery … is not definite,” Assistant District Attorney John Paul Lewis told Porter about Matinsky’s condition.

Jaime Ramsey, a mutual acquaintance who lives at the Seventh Street house in Charleroi where the incident took place, testified that Shrader was at her home earlier that night, but left around midnight. Matinsky came over shortly after, and Ramsey soon received a text message from Shrader.

“She’s in there, isn’t she?” Ramsey said of Shrader’s text message.

Matinsky asked Ramsey if they could lock the windows and doors before she went upstairs, according to testimony. Shrader apparently came through a window and went into an upstairs bedroom where Matinsky was located, and the two began punching each other, Ramsey said. Matinsky fell to the ground at some point and Shrader kicked her in the face, Ramsey said.

“She was mad,” Ramsey said of Shrader’s demeanor. “When I got (into the bedroom) they were already fighting.”

Matinsky then went downstairs into the kitchen and got a chef’s knife before threatening to “kill her,” prompting Shrader to pull out a pocket knife, Ramsey said. Matinsky accidentally slashed Ramsey on the hand as Ramsey attempted to stop the fight. The three women went to the sink to wash Ramsey’s wound, and Matinsky placed the knife in the sink.

Matinsky then apparently attempted to grab the knife again, Ramsey said, prompting Shrader to put her hands around her neck and choke her while making a jerking motion. Ramsey stopped her, and then Shrader dragged Matinsky out of the house through the front door. Ramsey said she heard a “thud” and went outside and found Matinsky unconscious.

“I couldn’t wake her up,” Ramsey said.

She pulled Matinsky into the house and placed her on a couch before calling emergency responders. Matignsky remains hospitalized with a torn trachea and her prognosis for recovery is uncertain, according to medical records provided at the hearing.

Matinsky and Shrader made numerous violent threats against each other in the month leading up to the incident, according to Ramsey. At one point, Shrader texted Matinsky that “she was going to chop her head off and put on her mom’s doorstep,” Ramsey testified.

Shrader’s defense attorney, Neil Marcus, considered his client the victim because Matinsky pulled out a knife and threatened to kill her during the fight. He said Matinsky also sent text messages threatening Shrader. Marcus said after the hearing that he has evidence that Matinsky was assaulted the previous day and suffered severe injuries in that fight to cause her current condition.

“There are two sides to the story,” Marcus said after the hearing.

Shrader listened to testimony through video conferencing at the Washington County jail, where she’s being held on $150,000 cash bond.