Background: The home in Wichita, Kansas, where Eastburn allegedly beat a woman with a hammer (Google Maps). Inset: Jason Eastburn (Sedgwick County Jail).
A 43-year-old Kansas man allegedly spent his Christmas Eve on a mission to kill someone and armed himself with a hammer before knocking on a door of a home with several cars in the driveway.
When a woman holding her 1-month-old baby answered, the suspect — later identified as Jason Eastburn — pounced, cops say. He repeatedly hit her in the head with the hammer, requiring doctors to patch up the wound on her head with four staples, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit released on Monday.
The incident unfolded shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 24 at a home in the 7200 block of 24th Street in Wichita. A 22-year-old woman called cops to say someone in a blue button-down shirt broke in and was "trying to kill them."
Cops rushed to the scene and found Eastburn at a park across the street from the home with an injury to his forehead. They arrested him. One of the victims said she was holding her baby when she heard a knock at the door. She opened the door, thinking it was someone selling something.
But the man was no salesman.
"When she answered the door, the male smiled at her and told her 'I'm going to kill you,'" cops wrote. "The male pulled a hammer from behind his back with his right hand and pushed his way into the residence. The male struck her an unknown number of times with the hammer on the left side of her head."
Other people in the home, including a 76-year-old grandmother, grabbed the man, which allowed the woman and her baby to escape to another room, the affidavit stated. After wrestling with some of the home's residents, Eastburn dropped the hammer and ran to the park, where he was arrested.
A paramedic said on the way to the hospital, Eastburn told her "I killed a woman over there," according to the affidavit. Post-Miranda, he allegedly told officers he often drove by the home and saw several cars in the driveway.
"Jason told Officer Byers he wanted to kill someone in a home with a lot of people in it, and believed this home matched his needs," cops wrote.
Eastburn also told cops that the hammer he used in the alleged attack was "sentimental" to him because it once belonged to his father. He inherited it, along with the home he lived in, and he said being alone "triggers" him emotionally. He stated he may suffer from a mental illness but was not taking any medication to address it.
The suspect stated it was his "intention to kill" the woman who answered the door and that he was "guilty of attempted murder."
"Jason said that he knew what he did was wrong, and that he was embarrassed and ashamed of his actions," cops wrote. "He said that he has had homicidal thoughts for a while and referenced issues from his childhood. Jason said he wanted to stop his family's generational violence. He was relieved to be in a place where he could no longer hurt anyone."
Eastburn is facing a slew of charges, including attempted murder in the first degree, aggravated battery and aggravated endangering a child. He remains in the Sedgwick County Jail without bond.