COLUMBUS – Wendell L. Callahan told Columbus police detectives that he has no memory of the incident in which he is accused of fatally stabbing an ex-girlfriend and her two children on Jan. 12.
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“The only thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital,” officers wrote in a report read during Callahan’s initial court appearance Tuesday.
Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Amy Salerno set Callahan’s bail at $3 million after hearing the facts of the case.
Callahan, 35, is charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Erveena Hammonds, 32, and her daughters, Breya Hammonds, 7, and Anaesia Green, 10, at her North Side apartment.
Police said Hammonds’ current boyfriend, Curtis C. Miller, arrived unexpectedly and fought with Callahan. Both suffered stab wounds. Callahan was released from OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital on Saturday and interviewed by detectives.
Callahan ran from the apartment building on Atlantic Avenue and was found in the Continent Village Apartments off Busch Boulevard by officers who responded to the 1:19 a.m. calls about the stabbings. Police said he had been identified by several witnesses as the man responsible.
Callahan was released from prison in August 2014 after a federal conviction for selling crack.
Funerals for the woman and her children will be held at noon Thursday at Vineyard Columbus on the North East Side, said senior pastor Rich Nathan. He said the community is coming together to provide the needs of surviving family members and other mourners. Vineyard chaplains also visited the girls’ school, Salem Elementary, on Tuesday to offer counseling and prayer to teachers, said principal Nikki Myers, who is a Vineyard member.
Callahan is due in court again next Tuesday.