Micah Fletcher told jurors Tuesday that seconds before Jeremy Christian stabbed him in the neck, he worried that Christian was about to beat up another passenger on a crowded MAX train on May 26, 2017.
Fletcher, then 21, said he heard a loud noise and looked over to see Christian and passenger Taliesin Namkai-Meche standing nose-to-nose.
As a child, Fletcher said he was bullied throughout middle school -- jumped and assaulted at least twice a week because of his autism -- and Fletcher knew that if Christian started pummeling Namkai-Meche, Namkai-Meche could really get hurt.
“I know what it looks like before somebody hurts someone else,” said Fletcher, who was diagnosed on the autism spectrum at age 8. “... (Namkai-Meche) just looked like a friendly person. He didn’t look like the type of man that even if he wanted to would hit you."
In about 2 1/2 hours of highly anticipated testimony on the sixth day of Christian’s murder trial, the only survivor of the attack explained what he said and did in the moments leading up to the stabbings.
Defense attorneys indicated as the trial opened that they would seek to portray Fletcher as an aggressor.
Fletcher, dressed in a black suit, black shirt and striped tie with a scar on his neck clearly visible above his collar, answered all the questions in a calm, considered voice, even as he described his frustrations that day and his outrage over Christian’s words.
Jurors will decide if Christian should be held criminally responsible for stabbing Fletcher, then fatally stabbing Namkai-Meche, 23, and Ricky Best, 53. Christian, 37, is charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Fletcher’s wound came within millimeters of killing him.
Christian has largely blamed Fletcher for the stabbings, arguing he acted in self-defense after Fletcher and the other two men to differing degrees challenged him because he was exercising his right to free speech.
Prosecutors contend Christian was the first to get physical, by swatting Namkai-Meche’s phone out of his hand, making the loud sound that Fletcher heard, then throwing the first two shoves. Prosecutors also are arguing that no matter Fletcher’s actions, Christian responded with vastly disproportionate force: using a deadly weapon.
Witnesses said the confrontation began after Christian launched a racist and xenophobic tirade that appeared aimed at two teenage girls, one who was wearing a hijab, when tensions reached their boiling point.
Fletcher testified that he got involved because he has strong feelings about bigoted beliefs and wanted to divert attention away from the girls and to himself. Fletcher was riding to work about 4:30 p.m. after having finished classes for the day at Portland State University.
The prosecution showed jurors a photo of Fletcher walking toward Christian on the train, his finger pointed out and his mouth open.
Prosecutor Jeff Howes asked Fletcher why he thinks the move was “appropriate.”
“That wasn’t something I was considering,” Fletcher said.
“Why did you do it at all?” the prosecutor asked.
“Because whether or not something is appropriate, if it’s right, you should do it,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher explained that after initially confronting Christian, he backed off and even turned his back to Christian at one point. But moments later, after Christian threw or slapped down Namkai-Meche’s phone, Fletcher said he felt compelled to do something again.
“I simply did what I should do," Fletcher said. “What I saw was this tall spindly man ... someone who had probably never been in an altercation in their life, let alone a fistfight.”
So, Fletcher said, even though he was 5-feet-8 and 140 pounds, he interjected himself into the nose-to-nose moment between Christian, who is 6-foot-1 and weighed 235 pounds, and Namkai-Meche, who stood 6-foot-2 and weighed about 170 pounds.
Fletcher, now 24, said Christian was yelling at Namkai-Meche and Namkai-Meche appeared surprised.
“I remember getting up between them,” Fletcher said. “I think I tried to say something.”
Fletcher said Christian quickly shoved him in the chest and then shoved Namkai-Meche as he yelled “Do something, (expletive)!” Fletcher said he grabbed Christian by the collar and threw him back into some seats.
“I think I said, ‘Get the (expletive) off the train,’” Fletcher said. “‘Go on, git!’”
Howes, the prosecutor, asked Fletcher why he waited to grab Christian until after Christian shoved Namkai-Meche.
“Because it wasn’t about me,” Fletcher said. “This wasn’t about me feeding my ego. I cared about whether the other person was hurt.”
Fletcher said Christian told Fletcher to hit him again, so Fletcher shoved Christian. Christian dared Fletcher to do it a third time. Fletcher pushed Christian toward the door.
“How did he respond?” asked the prosecutor.
“He responded by stabbing me in the throat,” Fletcher said.
“Did you see that coming?” the prosecutor asked.
“Not at all,” Fletcher said. He didn’t know Christian was holding a 4-inch folding knife in his right hand, he said. “I originally thought he had punched me.”
But Fletcher said he pulled up his hands and noticed blood.
“Then I realized there was blood on my shirt,” Fletcher continued. “And then I realized it was coming out of my neck.”
Fletcher said he clutched his neck wound as he stepped out of the train’s open doors onto the Hollywood Transit Center’s platform. Fletcher said he called out for someone to help him, worried that any movement of his throat would increase the bleeding.
He thought he was going to die. “In my mind, that’s a given,” Fletcher said.
As bystanders applied pressure to his neck with a child’s jacket and a baby blanket, he waited for paramedics to arrive and asked to call his mother because he worried it would be the last time he spoke to her, Fletcher said.
MAX passenger Marcus Knipe spoke to Fletcher’s mom first, explaining that her son had been stabbed in the arm, a deception meant to not upset her too much, Fletcher said. Fletcher said he went along with it.
“I said, ‘Hey, Mom.’ … I said, ‘I got hurt. Don’t worry,’” Fletcher said. “... I said, ‘I love you.’”
Fletcher said he told his mother to phone his work, Stark Street Pizza, and tell his boss that he wouldn’t make it in that day. Fletcher said he hoped this would put his mom at ease because she wouldn’t suspect that he was at risk of dying.
“The reason I was telling her ... if I’m not going to make it to work, then I’m going to make it eventually,” he said.
Fletcher said he never returned to that job. Today, he works as a carpenter. He still performs special stretches on his neck, to reduce tightening of his muscles. He hinted at psychological trauma.
“I’ve changed a lot," he said, “and not in ways I’m super excited or happy about.”
At the prosecution’s request, Fletcher stepped closer to jurors and tilted his head to the side so they could see the scar that runs down the left side of his neck. Fletcher said the scar is longer than the stab wound because surgeons had to cut more of his neck during an operation.
Fletcher held his composure for most of his testimony, but covered his face or shook during a few parts of it.
Christian vigorously shook his head in apparent disagreement at times. He also laughed and repeatedly stretched and raised his elbows in the air, his hands tucked behind his head.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Dean Smith attempted to pick apart Fletcher’s judgment for stepping forward and trying to get Christian to get off the train.
“Sometimes a person might intervene because they want to help out, but it doesn’t work out, right?” Smith asked.
“Sure,” Fletcher said.
Smith asked Fletcher if he noticed that the two teenage girls were moving away from Christian to a different part of the train when Fletcher walked toward Christian for the first time. Video backs up Smith’s statement.
Fletcher said he hadn’t noticed.
Smith criticized Fletcher for using harsh language and raising his voice at Christian.
“It probably wasn’t in my opinion at the time the best way to de-escalate a situation,” Fletcher said. “Because it was loud. And that’s not necessarily de-escalative.”
But after Smith finished his cross-examination, the prosecution tried to counter the idea that Fletcher acted out of uncontrolled anger.
Fletcher explained that at the point Christian and Namkai-Meche stood nose-to-nose, he worried Christian might throw Namkai-Meche between some seats and others wouldn’t be able to pull Christian away.
“If he wanted to put Taliesin in a situation where he couldn’t be helped ... he could have done that with relative ease and speed,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher said he hoped to get Christian to refocus his attention on him, someone who is used to dealing with assaults, and that Namkai-Meche would be safe.
The prosecutor asked: “What happened instead?”
“He died,” Fletcher said. "He got hurt. I was wrong. I couldn’t save him. I really wanted to and couldn’t. I just wasn’t strong enough.”
The trial is scheduled to last until the end of the month.
-- Aimee Green
o_aimee
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