SIERRA VISTA — Annie Kearney-Miller was inside her apartment Thursday night when she heard a young woman yell, “Call 9-1-1, he’s stabbing my mother.”

Hearing this, Kearney-Miller threw the telephone at her husband and ran outside and down the stairs to her neighbor’s apartment. In front of the window, she saw a man repeatedly stabbing a woman.

“I opened the window and I yell ‘Stop it,’ and he looked at me for about three or four seconds, and then he continued to do it,” she said.

At this point, Kearney-Miller said, other neighbors arrived and helped to break open the locked door of the apartment.

Ronald Jones Jr. (Courtesy of the Sierra Vista Police Department)

“Then he ran out through the window,” she said.

Sierra Vista police arrested Ronald Jones Jr., 39, of Tucson, shortly thereafter. He was found covered in blood in the area near Wilcox Drive and Lenzner Avenue at 8:15 p.m., according to police. Jones entered the apartment through the same window he used to escape, police said.

Jones was booked into the Cochise County Jail on charges of domestic violence attempted first-degree murder and domestic violence aggravated assault. His bond was set at $1 million on Friday.

The woman suffered stab wounds, but was released from a hospital on Friday.

The incident started just after 8 p.m. at the Casa de la Sierra apartment complex, 500 S. Coronado Drive.

Upon hearing the screams, neighbors rushed to help.

Sgt. 1st Class Christian Estores said he was on the phone with emergency dispatchers when Jones ran from the apartment.

“I notice the window just bust open, and he was running,” Estores said.

Afterward, Estores entered the apartment to help others who were trying to help the victim.

“The other neighbors were tending to the mother, who was on the bathroom floor,” he said. “She was just laying there, lifeless, blood everywhere.”

Neighbors, which included an off-duty Border Patrol agent, applied towels and blankets to the stab wounds until paramedics arrived.

“It was a big mess,” Estores said.

Police confirmed the weapon used was a knife, but did not provide any details as to the type of knife.

Estores said that, judging from the wounds, it may have been similar to a pick or screwdriver.

Blood from the incident was still visible on the window blinds and frame on Friday morning.

“I grabbed the blanket off the bed and put it around her neck,” Kearney-Miller said.

“I can’t fathom that level of violence,” she added. “I don’t know what he was thinking.”

The victim was taken to the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center after suffering multiple stab wounds to her upper body, police said. She was later flown by helicopter to University Medical Center in Tucson.

UMC officials said the woman was treated for her wounds and scheduled to be discharged Friday.

Greg Flatt, the property supervisor for the apartment complex, said the woman was back at the apartment complex on Friday afternoon. He said she’d lived in the apartment for only a week.

“We’re proud to be operating a very safe community in Sierra Vista that we care about tremendously,” Flatt said. “The victim has our sentiments.”

Officers with the Sierra Vista Police Department’s Special Operations Bureau were able to interview the woman before she was taken to UMC.

Police said they determined the woman was married to Jones, but they were separated.

Sierra Vista police do not have records of prior incidences between the victim and Jones. And officers continue to investigate Thursday’s incident.

According to Arizona Department of Corrections records, Jones was in prison as recently as 2006, serving more than three years for aggravated assault. He was sentenced for that criminal charge in Maricopa County.

Jones was released from prison on Sept. 25, 2006. Records also show he had multiple disciplinary actions for fighting, theft and disobeying orders while incarcerated.

Herald/review reporter Derek Jordan can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at derek.jordan@svherald.com.