The attorney for a Port Townsend woman convicted of attacking her husband with a hatchet while he slept has requested a new trial.

Anna Young was found guilty of first-degree assault in late June in Jefferson County Superior Court for repeatedly hitting her husband with a sheathed hatchet during an early morning attack on Nov. 2, 2021 on their Port Townsend home.

During the four-week trial, prosecutors said Young, 61, repeatedly struck her husband, Ronald Stephens, 74, with the hatchet as he was sleeping. When he woke up confused, Young yelled at him, “You’re in a dream. You’re in a dream.”

The jury reached its verdict on June 22 in less than four hours of deliberations.

In a court filing earlier this month, Julie St. Marie, Young’s attorney, asked the court to grant a new trial.

St. Marie claimed a new trial was needed because Young’s right to due process and a fair trial had been impacted.

A new trial was needed, St. Marie said in court documents, because of “newly discovered evidence” and “repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct.”

Concerns about the prosecutor’s sharing of information gathered during the investigation of the crime came up repeatedly in the lead-up to the trial, and during the trial itself.

St. Marie had earlier asked the court for a mistrial in the case due to the late disclosure of police reports and other information.

Prosecutors admitted that some materials had been provided to the defense late, but said no new facts had been injected into the case, and that any material that was disclosed at a late date contained information that had been previously provided to the defense.

During a short hearing in Jefferson County Superior Court Friday, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tuppence Macintyre asked that the motion for a new trial for Young be considered on Aug. 4, the day that Young is scheduled to be sentenced.

That way, if the judge denies the motion for a new trial, Young could still be sentenced on her conviction,  Macintyre said.

St. Marie had previously asked that sentencing be delayed until the request for a new trial was considered.

Judge Brandon Mack agreed to not schedule the hearing for a new trial on the same day as sentencing.

Instead, the court’s consideration for a new trial will be heard on
Aug. 11.

The sentencing hearing set for Aug. 4 was canceled, and a new date will be set following the court’s decision on Aug. 11.

Young remains in custody in Jefferson County Jail.

While Young was out on bail during her trial, she was booked back into jail after her bail was reset following her conviction. During last week’s hearing,
St. Marie, Young’s attorney, asked the court for an order that made it clear Young was not a flight risk.

Young has not been able to get a bond to be released from jail, St. Marie noted, because a bail bond company has had the false impression that Young is a Chinese national and a flight risk.

Mack noted the $50,000 bail was necessary, but said the court had determined that Young was not a flight risk and her release on bond didn’t pose a risk to community safety.