A father accused of slitting the throats of his wife and daughters in the family's Crofton home was ordered held without bail Monday, and no motive was offered for why he may have harmed his family and himself.
Julio Cesar Esquetini, 49, of the 1600 block of Forest Hill Court in the Crofton Meadows Four townhouse community, appeared on a monitor in District Court in Annapolis from the Anne Arundel County Detention Center. He was arrested Friday and faces more than a dozen charges. He is being held in lieu of $10 million bail.
Assistant Public Defender Shawn Gaither told Judge John McKenna that his client's wife, her neck swathed in a scarf as she sat in the courtroom with a relative, wanted her husband to return home. She is staying with a relative.
But Michelle Smith, assistant Anne Arundel state's attorney, contended that Esquetini was a danger to himself and to others. His charges include attempted second-degree murder.
"When a man decides to slit the throats of his wife and children, he feels he has nothing to lose," the judge said.
Esquetini's wife, identified in charging documents as Ximena Esquetini, and relatives declined to comment.
She and her daughters, Paula, 20, and Andrea, 13, were attacked early Wednesday, according to police. Paula Esquetini called 911 shortly after 6:30 a.m. and repeated the allegation while at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, according to court documents.
The application for charges accuses Esquetini of using a box cutter to injure his family. It also states that police on the scene followed a bloody trail out the basement door into woods, and heard Esquetini moaning. The documents describe at least some of his wounds as self-inflicted, noting that Esquetini "stated that the cuts to his ankles were done by him."
Police said they recovered a box cutter near the basement door.