A Mercer County teenager charged with murder in a Wildwood stabbing that wounded two others needed medical assistance during his detention hearing Monday.
DaJohn Taylor, 18, is charged with murder and aggravated assault in the deadly June 11 melee.
Kaiden Braithwaite, 20, of Cliffwood in Momouth County, was stabbed nine times.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Taylor allegedly fled the scene, throwing his bloody sweatshirt away before getting a ride from the scene, according to information released during the hearing.
The knife has not been recovered.
Taylor turned himself in the next day, and was ordered held in jail Monday.
But before Judge Christopher Gibson made his decision, the medical staff had to be called in to tend to Taylor, who appeared to be hyperventilating from the room in the jail where inmates are brought to attend their hearings via livestream.
"I'm just going to take a break," defense attorney Erika Appenzeller said, as she noticed Taylor struggling. "I don't know if there's an issue with my client ... a medical issue.
A sheriff's officer came into the room and turned on the sound to the booth, which was muted for the hearing.
"Relax, relax," he could be heard telling Taylor.
"I can't breathe," Taylor said. "I'm sorry. I think I'm having a panic attack. I have anxiety. This is too much for me. I can't."
A nurse came into the room, and the video was cut so Taylor could be treated privately. He came back after having a separate meeting with his attorney, who told the judge her client could continue with the hearing.
Taylor and others were at 307 E. Madison Ave., when a woman went by and something inappropriate was apparently said to her. That sparked the woman's boyfriend to go get some friends to come back to the house, according to information at the hearing.
Braithwaite was one of those friends who returned.
Appenzeller said her client feared for his life as several fights broke out. She noted that a brief video of the incident showed Taylor's friend knocked unconscious.
That friend, named only as Amir during the hearing, told investigators the same thing, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Dara Paley told the judge.
But, she noted, that Taylor is seen stabbing Braithwaite before Amir was knocked unconscious.
A woman who drove both men from the scene provided the video to investigators.
Appenzeller said it makes a good case for self-defense.
"My client is walking backwards and being basically pushed or hit by these individuals," she said of the video. "At one point, there are three to four individuals on top of my client. It needs to be put in perspective exactly what happened that night."
Paley said what happened is that rather than go inside the house, call police or just not get involved in the fray, Taylor armed himself and stabbed Braithwaite "not once, not twice but nine times."
He also wounded Mikal Braithwaite, whose relationship to Kaiden was not clear, along with Yosef Abdou, who was stabbed in the hands as he tried to disarm Taylor, according to the affidavit of probable cause obtained by BreakingAC.
"I don't want to downplay anything," Appenzeller said.
"But my client is also dealing with somebody passing away, which is proposed to be at his hands," she said as Taylor could be heard crying and laid his head on the table in front of him. "That's a lot for an 18-year-old kid to take in."
Taylor was the only one of the more than a dozen involved in the fights to have a knife, Paley said.
"To use deadly force, you need to be confronted with deadly force," she told the judge. "And the only individual that had a weapon was this defendant."
Despite having no criminal history, the judge ordered Taylor held, following the suggestion of the public safety assessment, which is used to determine whether a defendant is held under bail reform.
