YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - A Yakima County Superior Court jury will now decide if a Washington state man on trial on second-degree murder charges was justified when he fatally stabbed another man in the neck in 2018, prosecutors said.
Anthony Mallory was arrested and charged in the death of Michael Ochoa, 55, who was stabbed outside a home in August 2018, prosecutors said. He died in a hospital three days later.
Prosecuting attorneys and defense attorney Kenneth Therrien agree that Mallory stabbed Ochoa, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported. But Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sam Chen told jurors that Mallory attacked Ochoa without being provoked. Both gave their closing arguments on Monday.
“It was intentional. It was not reckless,” Chen said, who called on Ochoa’s girlfriend who claimed he was was stabbed while he was writing phone numbers on cards to give out in his search for a trailer he loaned to a family that was evicted.
Therrien argued his client believed Ochoa was going to attack him after Mallory claimed the man questioned him using an obscenity, stepped toward him and asked if he wanted to be “threatened” more.
“It is reasonable for someone to think verbal threats proceed violent acts,” Therrien said. “that is the very nature of self-defense.”
Therrien also argued there was no proof that Ochoa had owned a trailer, and that his girlfriend was released from jail the day of the attack and had prior convictions for theft and identity theft.
Therrien added: “Is it possible that he was looking for something more than a trailer down there?”
Chen suggested Mallory may have been the one looking for drugs in the neighborhood, as he said in his own testimony that he smoked marijuana with his brother after the stabbing. Chen also said an autopsy showed Ochoa did not have drugs in his system.
Mallory could be convicted of intentional or felony second-degree murder or first- or second-degree manslaughter. Jurors must also determine if Mallory used a deadly weapon in the attack, which could add time to any sentence he receives if convicted.
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