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Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Houston murder trial jury still out

PERRY — A Houston County jury is expected to resume deliberations this morning in the murder trial of a Warner Robins man accused of fatally stabbing another man in the parking lot of restaurant and bar.

Mario Harris, 32, of Warner Robins, is accused of stabbing Stephen Thad Register, 32, of Warner Robins, once just below the chest at about 10:44 p.m. Dec. 27, 2007, outside Buffalo’s Cafe at 3051 Watson Blvd. Register died about six hours later at Houston Medical Center.

Harris is being tried in Houston County Superior Court on charges of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime.

After deliberating for several hours Thursday, jurors were unable to reach a verdict and recessed for the day.

Earlier, jurors heard closing arguments from prosecution and defense attorneys.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Jason Ashford argued that the defense was grasping at straws in claiming that Harris stabbed Register in self-defense.

“The facts of this case are too stubborn for that,” Ashford said.

Ashford told jurors that only Register was dead, the only weapon was the knife wielded by Harris, that Harris didn’t have any mark of a fight on him, that Register had no defensive wounds and “never saw it coming” and that Harris fled the scene and “got rid of the murder weapon.”

Ashford also questioned a knife with a 5 to 6 inch blade that the defense claimed Harris, who had been enrolled in school to learn aircraft sheet metal maintenance and construction, kept on him as part of his job in construction.

“That’s a heck of a knife to use at work,” Ashford told jurors.

But Franklin J. Hogue, a Macon attorney representing Harris, argued that a person is justified in the use of force to defend imminent lethal force.

Hogue noted that Harris was confronted by three men he didn’t know in a dark parking lot who are threatening to kick his teeth in. Harris pulled out a knife in an attempt to deter the men to no avail while the threats escalated to killing Harris, Hogue said.

Hogue noted the testimony of Brett Crumley of Warner Robins, who Hogue described as an “independent neutral witness.”

Crumley testified that he walked out of the restaurant and bar into the parking lot and heard one of the men say, “You think you’re gonna pull a knife on me and get away with it.”

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559.