BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn paralegal whose ex-con husband allegedly slashed her face and body with a box cutter and left her to die in front of his mother's home in Queens last week pleaded with him to turn himself in before he can hurt her or her loved ones again.
Jennifer Altman, 26, needed more than 2,000 stitches — 700 on her face alone — to sew up the seven life-threatening wounds allegedly inflicted by Dartanyan Kingsberry, 23, shortly before 10 a.m. last Tuesday. Kingsberry is still being sought by police, officials said.
"He said to me 'you think you're pretty? You're not going to be pretty anymore,'" Altman, whose face was covered with bandages and stitches, told reporters at a press conference in Brooklyn where she now lives. She was flanked by family, friends and Community Advocate Tony Herbert.
"I said 'no, stop.' I screamed but nobody came out to help," she added, "He said 'if I can't have you, nobody can.' He wanted to kill me, he was going for my throat," she said.
Altman said she and Kingsberry had been in a relationship for two years, but after they got married two months ago, he began to beat her and burn her with cigarettes.
Kingsberry served four years in prison for attempted robbery, and was released on parole last July, according to state Department of Correction records.
Altman said she moved out of Kingsberry's mother's house within the 102nd Precinct in Queens recently because of the abuse, but returned on Saturday to pick up her belongings and tell him that she wanted a divorce.
That's when he became enraged and pulled the box-cutter from his pocket, she said.
Altman said Kingsberry inflicted a 7-inch, 8-inch and 11-inch gash to her face and a 2-foot long slash up her leg and back before fleeing the scene. A neighbor called 911 and she was taken to Jamaica Hospital.
"I can't sit, sleep, eat go to the bathroom," she said. "I have come to the conclusion that I will have these scars for the rest of my life."
Altman, who had worked as a paralegal at a personal injury law firm, said she fears Kingsberry will come back to hurt her, her friends, or her family.
"I'm more scared for my family than myself. He knows where my mother lives, my sisters, my nieces. He has nothing to lose now so he could come after them," she said.
Altman's longtime friend Kristal Johnson, held her hand while imploring for the public and authorities to find and arrest Kingsberry.
"He tried to steal her beauty, but he didn't. Please help us put an end to domestic violence," Johnson said. "It has to stop now."