Fewer than 18 hours before Jeremy Christian plunged a knife into the necks of three MAX train commuters on May 26, 2017, prosecutors say Christian laid out his plan to do so.
Christian was captured on cellphone video on a Blue Line MAX train yelling about how he’d like to stab the train operator and, using vulgar language, how he was about to stab unspecified people.
Until Thursday, the 11th day of Christian’s murder trial, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Cheryl Albrecht had prohibited prosecutors from playing the cellphone video for jurors.
But she agreed with prosecutors that playing the video now would allow them to counter defense expert testimony from earlier this week that Christian has cognitive deficits and struggles with the ability to develop a plan.
“This goes to directly rebut that,” prosecutor Jeff Howes told the judge. “... It gives a snapshot into the defendant’s mind.”
The defense rested its case in the morning. The state is expected to present rebuttal witnesses through Friday. Closing arguments could be made Tuesday, three weeks after the trial began.
Christian is charged with the first-degree murders of two men on the train, Taliesin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Ricky Best, 53, and the first-degree attempted murder of a third who survived, Micah Fletcher, then 21.
The cellphone video played for jurors was recorded by an alarmed passenger close to midnight on May 25, 2017. The video begins with the woman pointing her phone at her purse on her lap, then slowly tilting the phone toward the loud man seated in front of her. The side of Jeremy Christian’s face and the back of his head, including his distinctive pony tail, can be seen.
Christian exclaims that he wants to stab the train operator.
“I’ll stab you, too, (expletive!)” Christian says. “... Move forward!”
Christian follows up by saying, “I’m about to stab some (expletives). Call the police. I dare you!”
Portland police Detective Michele Michaels testified that she also believes Christian made a reference on the video to Demetria Hester, an African American woman with whom he argued an hour or two before.
“Punk ass (expletives)!” Christian says at one point. “... Telling me what I can and cannot say. ... And then you Mace me. (Expletive) you.”
Hester testified in the first week of the trial that she told Christian to stop a racist tirade on a Yellow Line train earlier that night. Hester said after she stepped off the train, Christian exclaimed “(Expletive), you’re about to get it” and she Maced him. TriMet surveillance video shows Christian throwing a Gatorade bottle at Hester’s head. She suffered an eye injury.
The next day, Christian stabbed Namkai-Meche, Best and Fletcher on a Green Line train as it pulled into the Hollywood Transit Center in Northeast Portland, claiming he was acting in self-defense. Namkai-Meche and Best died within minutes.
Christian has said he was exercising his free speech on the crowded train. Witnesses said he unleashed a racist and xenophobic rant and then attacked the three men. Namkai-Meche had held up his cellphone, Christian threw the first shoves and Fletcher pushed back. Other video played at the trial appears to show Best had no contact with Christian.
Some witnesses testified that Christian was targeting two teenage girls, one who was wearing a hijab, with a hateful torrent about Christians, Jews and Muslims dying. Among the charges Christian faces are three counts of second-degree intimidation, which is a hate crime in Oregon.
-- Aimee Green
o_aimee
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