A 32-year-old man accused of attacking an elderly man in a Mililani theater complex Tuesday told police that he stabbed the man because he wanted to go to jail, according to court documents.

Justin C. Williams was charged yesterday with one count of second-degree attempted murder. He remained in a police cellblock last night, unable to post the $50,000 bail.

If convicted, Williams faces a mandatory prison term of life with the possibility of parole.

Williams was arrested Tuesday afternoon after an 82-year-old man was attacked from behind and stabbed while in a restroom at Consolidated Theatres' Mililani 14-plex. While being taken in a police car to the Wahiawa police substation, Williams told an officer that he wanted to "cut the old man because he (Williams) wanted to go to jail for life," according to a police affidavit filed in Honolulu District Court.

Police said the two men did not know each other and the attack was unprovoked. Police said robbery was not a motive.

Witnesses told police that they heard a scuffle in the men's restroom and that someone shouted, "He's got a knife," at about 3:40 p.m. Tuesday. A theater employee and another man went to the restroom and saw a bearded man, identified in the affidavit as Williams, with a knife.

The witnesses also saw the older man holding his head and said there was blood around him, the affidavit said. The victim was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital where he was treated for his injuries and released.

After leaving the restroom, Williams dropped the knife near the women's restroom and walked toward the theater exit, the affidavit said. A theater employee picked up the knife and he and another man confronted Williams as he left the theaters.

The men told Williams to sit on the ground near the ticket office and Williams complied, the affidavit said. Police were called, and Williams was arrested without incident.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.