SE Woman Who Sought Protection Is Slain

James H. Campbell threatened to kill his girlfriend, Nakia Cunningham, Friday, but she was not intimidated. He had said that before, a relative said yesterday.

" 'If I can't have you, ain't nobody going to have you because I'm going to kill you and me, too,' " recalled Cunningham's aunt, Maria Antionette Atkinson, who overheard the exchange.

Yesterday morning, Campbell, 34, apparently did kill Cunningham, stabbing the 24-year-old in her apartment in Southeast Washington before killing himself on the grounds of a charter school about seven miles away in Northeast Washington, police said.

The apparent murder-suicide came on a day that police and court officials were announcing a pilot program to make it possible to obtain emergency protection orders when it is not possible to bring a matter to court and obtain a temporary protection order. Temporary protection orders, which are in force for 14 days, are sought thousands of times a year in the District by people who feel they are in danger. A person is ordered to stay away from the person seeking the order.

Cunningham had obtained a temporary protection order against Campbell three years ago. A person can later seek a civil protection order, which is typically in force for a year. Cunningham began the process but never completed it, according to court records.

Violating either order is punishable as contempt of court. But such orders are not always a match for the long memories, lasting grudges and intense emotions that mark many domestic-violence cases.

As investigators tried to unravel the deaths of Campbell and Cunningham yesterday morning, court records revealed a relationship that turned dangerously volatile in early 2004.

On Jan. 21, 2004, Cunningham went to D.C. Superior Court seeking a temporary protection order against Campbell, who told her he would drive his car off a bridge if she were riding with him, she said in her petition.

Cunningham said in the petition that Campbell had made a series of threats and assaults against her, placing her and the couple's child in immediate danger. A judge granted the temporary protection order.

Campbell threatened Cunningham again before the order could be served, according to charging documents in the case.

Hours after obtaining the order, Cunningham went to the 7th District police station in Southeast to wait for Campbell to be served. Campbell called Cunningham's cellphone while she was at the station, according to the documents. "You can have the police come and serve whatever papers they want," he told Cunningham, the documents said. "I'll kill you and then call the police and kill myself."

About an hour later, officers found Campbell at Cunningham's apartment in the 2800 block of Jasper Road SE. They arrested him and charged him with two counts of attempted threats.