A Greenville County judge again refused bond for the 22-year-old defendant as lawyers offered sharply different accounts of the April attack.

GREENVILLE, S.C. — A South Carolina woman accused of stabbing a Lyft driver 11 times and taking his vehicle will remain jailed after a judge denied bond again, leaving the court to weigh prosecutors’ public-safety concerns against a defense account that she was in a severe mental health crisis when the April attack occurred.

Naziyha La’Nay Weatherall, 22, returned to court Aug. 28 on charges tied to the April 22 attack on Lyft driver Sergii Savchenko in Greenville County. Prosecutors described the encounter as a violent attack on a driver who had simply answered a ride request. Weatherall’s attorney said she had called for the Lyft because she believed she needed to reach a police station, but was suffering delusions that worsened during the trip. The judge declined to release her and ordered that she remain in custody pending a psychological evaluation that had been scheduled for September.

The prosecution focused its bond argument on the severity of the allegations and the danger it said Weatherall posed if released. A solicitor told the court that Savchenko was working when he was stabbed 11 times and that his vehicle was then taken. Local reporting on the hearing said prosecutors characterized the case as a “frightening factual scenario.” The court did not decide guilt at the bond hearing, and the allegations remain unproven. But the number of wounds, the alleged use of a knife and the taking of the vehicle became central to the prosecution’s argument that detention should continue while the criminal case moves forward.

Savchenko’s wife also addressed the court because, she said, her husband remained too emotionally and mentally shaken to attend. She described the alleged assault as extremely violent and said her husband had been attacked while doing his job, without looking for a confrontation. Her concern, as presented in court, extended beyond his physical recovery to the effect the attack had on his sense of security and on the family’s view of the risks faced by people working in rideshare jobs. Earlier local reporting said Savchenko spent two days in the hospital after the attack and was later released to recover at home with his wife.

The defense presented a different explanation for what it said was happening in Weatherall’s mind before and during the encounter. Her attorney said Weatherall had been experiencing severe delusions and had diagnoses that included schizophrenia. According to the defense, she believed she was being watched, listened to and threatened. The attorney said Weatherall summoned the Lyft because she wanted to go to a police station to report those fears. Her mother had even called the station to say her daughter was on the way, the lawyer said. The defense argued that the crisis then intensified and that Weatherall came to believe she was being trafficked, causing her to panic.

Weatherall’s lawyer told the court that she had since been medicated and was stable and competent. The defense asked that she be released so her family and a social worker could arrange placement in a treatment facility. Court-related reporting also said competency and observation evaluations had been ordered in June, showing that questions about her mental condition were already part of the case before the August hearing. The defense’s account does not erase the criminal allegations, and the court did not treat it as a finding about Weatherall’s legal responsibility. Instead, it formed part of the argument over whether she could safely be released while the case remained pending.

Weatherall’s mother also spoke at the hearing and apologized to Savchenko’s family. She told the court the alleged conduct was out of character and asked the judge to consider her daughter’s mental health and lack of a prior criminal record, as described by the defense. The judge nevertheless denied bond. Reporting from the hearing said the court ordered Weatherall to remain jailed until a psychological evaluation was completed. Public reports reviewed for this story do not establish what happened at that evaluation, which had been scheduled for September, or whether a later bond hearing has occurred.

The case began months earlier, on the afternoon of April 22. The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said dispatchers received a report at about 2:30 p.m. from a passerby who saw a man with a visible head wound in the Haywood Road area near East North Street. Deputies found Savchenko and provided aid. Investigators said he had been driving for Lyft and had responded to a ride request from an apartment complex in the East North Street area. Authorities said Weatherall had requested the ride, attacked the driver and then took his vehicle in an attempt to leave. Deputies located her shortly afterward, according to the sheriff’s office.

The earliest local reports said Weatherall was booked on attempted murder, armed robbery and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Later reporting, including a review of Greenville County jail records by Law&Crime, described the property offense as carjacking resulting in bodily injury. South Carolina’s carjacking law generally covers taking or attempting to take a motor vehicle from someone by force, violence or intimidation while the person is operating or occupying the vehicle, and it provides a higher maximum penalty when great bodily injury results. The charging labels in public reports have not been entirely consistent, so the exact operative counts should be taken from the most recent court record rather than inferred from older news accounts.

South Carolina law separately defines attempted murder as an attempt to kill another person with malice aforethought and treats it as a felony. A weapons charge can also be brought when a weapon is possessed during the commission of certain violent crimes. Those statutes explain the seriousness of the counts reported in Weatherall’s case, but they do not determine whether prosecutors can prove the elements beyond a reasonable doubt. No trial verdict has been reported, and Weatherall is presumed innocent unless and until she is convicted.

Savchenko’s recovery added another dimension to the case in the days after the attack. His daughter, Anastasiia Savchenko, told FOX Carolina that her father drives for both Uber and Lyft and was working for Lyft when the encounter occurred. She said the family are Ukrainian refugees who fled the war about four years earlier. She also said her father speaks limited English. According to her account, he had greeted the passenger and begun the trip before the attack. She later said he spent two days in the hospital with 11 wounds to his head, face and back before returning home. Her description supplied a fuller picture of the man whose condition was initially reported only as stable.

Lyft said after the attack that the driver’s well-being was its priority, that it had reached out to Savchenko and his family, and that the rider accounts involved had been permanently removed from the platform. The company also said it was assisting law enforcement. Those measures became part of the public response, while Savchenko’s daughter said her father intended to keep driving even though she did not want him to return to the work. The company did not publicly suggest that its platform had determined criminal liability; its response was framed around support for the driver, account removal and cooperation with investigators.

Weatherall’s immediate legal position remains unchanged after the Aug. 28 ruling: she was ordered to stay in custody while the court awaited further psychological evaluation. Public reporting reviewed for this update does not establish the result of that evaluation or identify a later bond decision, plea or trial date. Until a subsequent court action is confirmed, the case remains in the pretrial stage and the charges against Weatherall remain allegations.

Author note: Last updated October 17, 2026.