33-year-old Edozie. Divorce between Edozie and Jaynie's 67-year-old mom finalized in September. (Face obscured on judge's request.)

“We got that victim alert that he was going to be released from jail, so we were putting his clothes in his car. And we saw him walking down the street towards us,” Jaynie told a judge on December 19, a month later.

She said it was after 6 p.m., “I was standing in the middle of the street, directly in front of my house, waiting for my mom to come out of the car.” As soon as she saw him, “I told my sister-in-law to call 911, cause last time he beat me up and I’m scared of him.”

Her mom had called 911 the day before, on November 19, after Jaynie said Edozie beat her up; deputies came and arrested him. (The divorce between 67-year-old Mom and 33-year-old Johnson Igbanu Edozie was finalized just two months earlier, in September 2019.)

Edozie was in jail overnight. So Mom moved Edozie’s car out of the driveway, she parked it across the street, “Because we did not want him to come to our house,” Jaynie told a judge at a pretrial hearing. “We were just trying to stay a safe distance from him.” Mom and Jaynie expected a police escort, “We figured we could just give the police the key.”

Jaynie, 43, and her 67-year-old mother expected the police escort for Edozie when he came to pick up his things because that was what was described in the Temporary Restraining Order. The TRO was signed by a judge earlier that day, Wednesday, November 20, 2019; and it declared that Edozie was to stay 100 yards away, which meant he would be unable to even enter the street where they lived.

The home on Lagan Avenue where Jaynie lived with her mom is about two miles from the Vista jail on South Melrose Drive (part of the Courthouse Complex).

But Edozie was alone when he approached. “I seen him coming straight up the middle of the street. He was walking.” Jaynie said Edozie walked toward her, then passed and walked toward her mom, who handed him the car keys. Jaynie heard, “He was asking for his passport.” Jaynie turned her back and walked away, crossing the street toward home. “And he came across the street, with the vehicle.” It happened in the street, in front of their house. “He came from behind and hit me from behind with the car on my leg.”

She testified, “He came from the other side of the street, and swerved, to hit me.” Jaynie pushed against the hood of the car, “because he kept coming forward, ‘cause he kept trying to get me.” She testified, “He came forward at me, like three times. He stopped and went, stopped and went.”

Jaynie was startled, “Well yeah I jumped and turned around.” She said she was struck on the back and front of her knee, on her right leg. “And I pushed off like this” then “he sped off.”

A prosecutor presented photos of bruises on the alleged victim. Defense attorney Brian Dooley objected to any references about the Temporary Restraining Order as “hearsay.”

Honorable judge Brad A. Weinreb ordered Johnson Igbanu Edozie, 33, to face one felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon, plus one misdemeanor for violating the TRO. Edozie pleads not-guilty to all charges and is held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

(Records for Johnson Igbanu Edozie have his first and last names sometimes transposed, also there are different spellings. His defense attorney insisted that Johnson is his first name and Edozie is the last name.)

Judge Weinreb ordered Edozie back to court on January 16, 2020, to confirm a February trial date.