A use-of-force consultant hired by defense attorneys offered a strikingly different interpretation of what prosecutors say led up to defendant Jeremy Christian stabbing three unarmed men in the necks on a crowded MAX train in May 2017, killing two of them.
Stephen Yerger testified Monday that the only stabbing victim to survive, Micah Fletcher, was “aggressive,” “confrontational” and invaded Christian’s personal space by moving within 6 to 8 feet of him in the moments before Christian pulled out his knife and used it.
“I would point out what Mr. Fletcher did was very inflammatory and was basically pouring gasoline on the fire,” said Yerger, a self-employed consultant whose business, 3 Tier Services, is based near Boise.
Yerger said Christian was acting defensively as Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Fletcher confronted him, causing Christian to fear for his safety and possibly even his life.
Stephen Yerger testified about de-escalation techniques during Jeremy Christian's trial on February 10, 2020. Beth Nakamura, The Oregonian/OregonLive/Pool
The eighth day of trial was the first day of Christian’s defense case after prosecutors finished questioning their witnesses last week.
Among the charges Christian, 37, faces are two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree intimidation, a hate crime. Defense attorneys last week asked the judge to acquit Christian of those crimes because of what they argued was a lack of evidence presented by the prosecution or an improperly worded indictment. The judge declined.
Witnesses have said that on the afternoon of May 26, 2017, Christian ranted on the train for more than five minutes about decapitating people and Jews, Muslims and Christians dying. They said he made statements including “(Expletive) Saudi Arabia!” and “Go home, we need American here!”
Two teenage girls, one who is African American and the other who is an immigrant from Somalia and was wearing a hijab, testified they felt Christian was targeting them and moved away from him on the train. Fletcher testified last week that he moved in to tell Christian to stop, but backed off after another passenger who was trying to ease tensions told Fletcher that Christian was just talking.
Witnesses said passengers were yelling at Christian to “Shut up!” and a short while later, Christian grabbed the phone of Namkai-Meche and threw it on the floor.
Namkai-Meche, according to one witness, had held up his phone as if about to record and said, “You’re about to become an internet sensation.”
Christian killed Namkai-Meche, 23, and Ricky Best, 53, who was standing behind Namkai-Meche. It doesn’t appear from videos shown in court that Best had any interaction with Christian at all.
Yerger said he was basing many of his conclusions from watching multiple videos taken from cellphones and surveillance cameras on the train. Defense attorney Dean Smith asked Yerger to characterize the actions of Namkai-Meche.
“At your first glance, it might appear to be harmless,” Yerger said. “But what he did ... was very confrontational. ... He sat in the chair facing Mr. Christian and put his phone in his face. ... He came to Mr. Christian. Mr. Christian did not come to him.”
Yerger described Christian as already agitated.
“All you’re going to do when someone is in that particular state is you’re going to make it worse,” Yerger said.
Fletcher testified he wasn’t looking directly at Christian and Namkai-Meche at that moment, and Fletcher thought the noise of the phone hitting the floor was the sound of Christian striking Namkai-Meche. Fletcher, who was 21 at the time, immediately stepped toward Christian. Video shows Christian, Namkai-Meche and Fletcher standing face-to-face, chest-to-chest.
“The schoolyard standoff is what I call it,” Yerger said.
That’s when video shows Christian shoving Fletcher and then Namkai-Meche. Christian was the first to lay hands on either man.
Yerger said although “most people would look at that like (it’s) a provocation,” he sees it as Christian feeling outnumbered and trying to defend himself against a “disparity of force."
“Your natural reaction is to push them away,” Yerger said. “... That’s a defensive push."
On video, Christian can be heard and seen yelling at Namkai-Meche and Fletcher to “Do something!" or "Do something, (expletive)!” over and over. Yerger said that was ‘just talk’ from a man who felt he was about to be hurt.
“It’s ‘I don’t want to hit you. ... Are you going to hit me?’” Yerger said.
Yerger said Christian, like others who might find them in a similar situation, had reason to fear he might be seriously injured. That’s especially true for Christian because he has a metal plate in his face that might make him more vulnerable, Yerger said.
“If they get hit in the head hard enough they could actually die," Yerger said.
In 2002, police shot Christian once in his right check after he pulled out a gun fleeing from the armed robbery of a convenience store, records show. He pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery with a firearm and second-degree kidnapping and was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.
After Christian shoved Namkai-Meche, Fletcher grabbed Christian by the shirt and told him to get off the train.
“Now Mr. Fletcher has become the aggressor because he threw Mr. Christian to the ground twice,” Yerger said, who later corrected himself to say Christian hit some seats and not the floor.
Prosecutors have said Fletcher pushed or grabbed Christian three times, and video appears to show that.
Christian went on to stab Fletcher, followed by Namkai-Meche and then Best. Yerger said Christian could have perceived Best as a danger because he was standing right behind Namkai-Meche.
“You get tunnel vision," Yerger said. "(Christian) could have very easily perceived all three of those people as being a threat.”
Although Yerger repeatedly characterized the three men who were stabbed as aggressors or threats, he never described Christian as such during his hour on the witness stand.
In cross-examining Yerger, prosecutor Jeff Howes asked him to define who was the “fire” in his analogy about Fletcher “pouring gasoline on the fire.” Yerger wouldn’t agree that it was Christian.
Howes also asked whether it made a difference that Namkai-Meche’s hands were full when Christian stabbed him: His cellphone was in one hand, a food container in the other.
Yerger said that was “irrelevant” to whether Christian thought Namkai-Meche was a threat because Christian might not have been paying attention to what Namkai-Meche was holding.
The prosecutor asked Yerger to explain why he thought Christian wasn’t threatening or warning both men when he yelled “Do something, (expletive)!” or “Oh, you want some?” to Fletcher.
“That’s the bravado,” Yerger said. “Calling out, ‘Are you really going to do something here?’ ... Just because somebody’s saying that doesn’t mean that somebody has to act on it."
The prosecutor asked Yerger why, after Fletcher pushed Christian and if Christian had been scared for his own safety, would Christian twice exclaim, “Hit me again!”
“'Hit me again’ in your world is a plausible expression of fear?” Howes asked.
“It could be,” Yerger responded. “... It could be a combination of fear and anger.”
When asked by Howes, Yerger agreed that he hadn’t listened to any of the 40 witnesses presented by the prosecution or watched a video of the confrontation that shows the encounter play out in slow motion.
Yerger said defense attorneys hadn’t asked him to.
“You make a lot of assumptions in your testimony,” Howes said.
In contrast to last week, when Christian frequently shifted his weight in his chair, shook his head and laughed as witnesses testified, he was still and quiet as Yerger testified.
Christian broke his silence once, when he disagreed with the prosecutor’s line of questioning. “Because it didn’t happen, that’s why,” he called out.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Cheryl Albrecht told Christian to be quiet. After the jury left the room, she told Christian that this was his last warning. Christian has blurted out statements a few times since opening statements two weeks ago.
The next time, the judge said, “you’re going to be escorted out” and allowed to watch the trial only by closed circuit video in another room.
Christian simply responded, “OK.”
-- Aimee Green
o_aimee
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