HILO, Hawai'i — A pregnant woman described how her 14-year-old son stopped her husband from stabbing her, and the mortally wounded boy pleaded with a dispatcher for help after being stabbed in the neck by his father in a set of grim emergency call recordings released by the Big Island police yesterday.

As a fire department dispatcher tried to calm the frightened boy, Tyran Vesperas-Saniatan begged for help from the police, asked for permission to call his friend for help, and told the dispatcher he did not know where his father had gone.

"My dad stabbed me in my neck, my dad stabbed me in my neck," Tyran sobbed at the start of the conversation. "Please, come with police, call the police."

Tyrone Vesperas, 38, has admitted to police he stabbed his pregnant wife, Cheryl-Lyn Vesperas, repeatedly in the abdomen with a military-issued combat knife during a domestic dispute at his 'Ainaloa home Monday, and also admitted to stabbing his son Tyran, according to a police affidavit.

Vesperas told officers that "my son died saving his mother's life," according to the affidavit filed in Hilo District Court yesterday.

Police said Tyran intervened to protect his mother as Tyrone Vesperas stabbed her, an act that allowed Cheryl Vesperas to escape from the home in her car. At some point, Tyran was also stabbed in the left side of his neck.

Police who responded to the 911 calls from Tyran and Cheryl found Tyrone Vesperas in the garage of the 'Ainaloa home with a cut to his left thigh. Tyran was found dead inside the home, and Cheryl was found wounded in her car by the side of the road outside of Kea'au.

Cheryl Vesperas was about nine months pregnant, and her unborn child did not survive the ordeal.

Tyrone Vesperas made his initial appearance in Hilo District Court yesterday afternoon dressed in a gray T-shirt and slacks, with his hands shackled to his waist.

District Judge Barbara Takase ordered that Vesperas remain in jail without bail, and ordered him to appear for further District Court proceedings Monday.

Vesperas is charged with attempted first-degree murder, second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and carrying a deadly weapon.

If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In the 911 recordings released yesterday, Cheryl Vesperas told a dispatcher she had been stabbed in the abdomen and fled from the home, and pleaded for someone to go to the 'Ainaloa house to get Tyran.

She told a fire department dispatcher she did not know if Tyran had been hurt, and described how the boy "wrestled with the father so he would let me go."

The 911 recordings also included an exchange between the fire department and Tyrone Vesperas after Tyran stopped talking to the dispatcher and collapsed. Tyrone hung up the phone, and the dispatcher called back and questioned Vesperas about his son's injuries.

Vesperas said his son was bleeding "real bad," and said the boy did not seem to be breathing. The dispatcher told Vesperas he would need to turn Tyran on his back and help him breathe until help arrived.

Vesperas replied, "I'll just wait till they come, because I cannot walk."

"What do you mean, you cannot walk?" the dispatcher asked.

"My leg is broken, I think."

The dispatcher continued, "OK, so you cannot get down and ... "

"Yeah, I'm outside," Vesperas said. He told the dispatcher he was using an outside phone, and had determined his son was not breathing by looking through the window.

When the dispatcher asked Vesperas what had happened, Vesperas hung up again.

Tyrone and Cheryl Vesperas were separated and had been going through a divorce, and Cheryl Vesperas told a fire department dispatcher her husband attacked her when she went to his 'Ainaloa home to pick up Tyran.

Tyrone Vesperas is a full-time staff sergeant with the Hawai'i Army National Guard who deployed to Iraq with the 29th Brigade Combat team from February 2005 through January 2006.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.