Marilyn Waller begged dispatchers for help on a 911 call late on Dec. 9. She said she was attacked by a man with a machete and didn’t think she was going to survive.
“Don’t let me die. I have a daughter,” she could be heard saying on a recording prosecutors played at a preliminary hearing Friday for Michael Woods, accused of two machete attack daeths that night.
Minutes later, emergency personnel responded to her apartment at the Hotel Jermyn and got her to the hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery and was admitted to intensive care.
Waller lived, but two other residents the man also savagely attacked on the sixth floor of the apartment building — Linda Fortuna and Terry M. Muller — died that night at the hands of Michael Woods, prosecutors say.
. The Hotel Jermyn Apartments in downtown Scranton on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)Woods is also accused of slashing a Labrador retriever service dog to death that night.
At Friday’s hearing, District Judge Christopher J. Szewczyk determined the prosecutors presented enough evidence for Michael Woods to stand trial on charges of two counts of murder in the first degree, two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated cruelty to animals and other homicide related charges.
Before prosecutors presented both audio and video recordings of the crime, Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara Varela gave those attending a chance to leave the courtroom.
She described the recording of Waller’s call to 911 as “not graphic, but emotional.”
Later in the hearing Scranton detective Michael Schultz introduced surveillance of footage from inside the apartment building.
The video shows Woods leaving his apartment and walking through the hallway, where he first slashed Fortuna, 61, as she was getting off the elevator and then turned and slashed Muller, 59.The video showed Muller getting up from the hallway floor bleeding profusely and going back to her apartment, where police found her dead.
Fortuna never got up from the floor, Schultz testified.
Fortuna and Muller were taken to Geisinger Community Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead, Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland testified. Both died from stab wounds to the chest.
Muller suffered multiple stab wounds and her hand was severed. She is still being treated, Schultz testified.
Woods, clad in a red jumpsuit, sat quietly through the hearing conferring with his defense attorney, David Cherundolo, several times.
During cross examination of Schultz, Cherundolo asked several questions, including whether Woods had broken into one of the rooms or if it had been open.
Woods remains at Lackawanna County Prison without bail.