The man accused of breaking into the Montecito mansion owned by Beanie Babies billionaire Ty Warner last week and assaulting a woman, putting her in a coma, was living in San Francisco a decade ago after reportedly threatening his wife.

42-year-old Russell Phay is now in custody and stands accused of possibly his most violent act to date, but family members say that Phay is schizophrenic and has exhibited violent tendencies for years. Phay allegedly broke into the home of Beanie Babies billionaire Ty Warner on May 21, in Montecito, in Santa Barbara County.

As the Daily Mail previously reported, Phay broke into the home, demanded everyone leave, and announced that the property belonged to him. He allegedly barricaded himself in the home, and violently assaulted 60-year-old Linda Malek-Aslanian. She remains comatose following severe injuries in the attack.

Warner, 80, was reportedly home at the time, but he escaped injury while Phay was barricaded in a second-story bedroom. Authorities say that Phay attempted to escape through a bathroom window, but was quickly detained by police.

It remains unclear how Warner and the victim may have been personally involved, but Malek-Aslanian is a financial services executive who has reportedly worked for Warner's hotel division. Warner has never married, but two of his girlfriends, Patricia Roche and Faith McGowan, were closely involved in his company, Ty Inc., during the time that Beanie Babies were being developed, before they became a popular fad, circa 1999.

Warner has an estimated net worth of $6.4 billion, and his hotel investments include the Four Seasons Biltmore resort in Santa Barbara, and the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito. He was convicted of tax evasion in 2014, after it was discoverd he was stowing over $100 million in a Swiss bank account, and he was sentenced to two years probation and community service.

As NBC News reports, Phay, a Nevada resident, has been seen as a danger to others by family members for years, and they have periodically tried to warn authorities during his mental health episodes. The family had, in fact, reached out to the Colorado Department of Corrections, where Phay was a parolee, in the days before the Montecito attack to warn them that Phay had made multiple concerning phone calls to them, and they believed he may try to hurt someone.

He made no specific threats, though, they said, and they were unsure of his whereabouts.

"Many of us have had to distance ourselves from Russell for our own safety, though it has never been easy to do so," the family said in a statement. "Even with our estrangement, we tried to take action when we saw warning signs that he was in crisis."

Phay, an army vet, has a record of violence and threats in California. As the Chronicle reports, he was arrested in 2017 following an incident in which he was accused of assaulting passengers on a bus near Mount Shasta.

And in 2014, he was profiled by the Chronicle as a veteran who was moving through a new Veterans Court in San Francisco, following a case in which he reportedly followed his wife, who had moved with their child from California to Colorado, and threatened her. He was imprisoned in Colorado for a time, but then was in Veterans Court in SF getting rehab.

Phay made an unsettling statement to the Chronicle at the time, which was picked up by tabloids like the Daily Mail last week, saying of the army, "I am fully trained for combat. I have been trained to eliminate you. I know that sounds crazy, but it is true."

He said of the Veterans Court, "They’ve recognized that I am salvageable. I need treatment, and I’ve gotten treatment. I feel like people here understand the brotherhood."

Phay's family expressed their regret about the violence against Malek-Aslanian in Montecito in their statement, saying, "Our hearts are with her, her family, and everyone affected by this senseless act of violence. We are deeply saddened by the pain and trauma caused."

Per NBC News, Phay was under supervised release in Colorado since last year for a crime or crimes that have not been made clear in reports. He was accused of assaulting someone with a baseball bat in December 2020, for which he pleaded guilty to felony menacing in 2021, and was sentenced to two years in prison, with 218 days suspended.

Phay had previously criminal convictions in Texas and Nevada as well, but authorities there appear to have directed his family to call the Colorado Department of Corrections, because he was not currently on parole in either of those other states.

Top image: Russell Phay, left, via Santa Barbara County Sheriff; Linda Malek-Aslanian, right, via NY Life Insurance Company