In case you haven't seen this... the Salina Journal covered a preliminary hearing for JJB that took place earlier this week. Here is their story that ran in this morning's Salina Journal...
A Salina man was bound over for trial Thursday on one count of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery after the judge heard testimony from a man he is accused of stabbing in the chest.
A trial was scheduled for John James "Rigg" Brown, 34, starting at 9 a.m. Jan. 31 in Saline County District Court. A hearing on pretrial motions, which his attorney indicated would include a challenge to a search warrant that allowed police to confiscate a samurai sword from Brown's house and other warrants, was scheduled for 9 a.m. Dec. 22. A final pretrial conference was set for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 23.
Brown is accused of attempting to murder Sheldon Freeman, and committing aggravated battery against Joseph Mullen and Joseph Fisher, who both had serious injuries to their hands caused by a sword or knife. Fisher testified Wednesday on the first day of Brown's preliminary hearing about an encounter July 1 in which Brown is alleged to have severed Fisher's little finger with the samurai sword. Fisher said he and Brown are both followers of an ancient Nordic pagan belief system in which swords are a valued symbol of manhood.
Freeman was the final witness to testify. He said he'd been working on his dirt bike in his shop in the early morning hours of July 3, when he texted Joseph Mullen, an acquaintance who had indicated he might have parts Freeman could use on his bike, to ask if it would be a good time for him to stop by.
Freeman said he'd had two or three beers throughout the course of the evening before arriving at Mullen's house. When he got there, a man he didn't know but later found out was Brown opened the door. Mullen, who was standing behind Brown, didn't introduce the two men, Freeman said.
Freeman said the three of them walked downstairs, and he began joking with Mullen. Freeman said he was "playfully arguing" that Mullen "didn't have the guts" to go out with him.
"Did you at some point begin taunting him about the fact that he wasn't man enough to come out and party with you?" asked attorney C. Richard Comfort, who represents Brown.
"That was part of it," Freeman said. Freeman said his remarks were "just horseplay" and he didn't intend for them to be taken seriously, but Mullen got defensive when Freeman used a curse word. Freeman said Brown, who had "kind of a crazy look on his face," was not involved in the conversation.
"Do you recall my client telling you words to the effect of 'If you say another word I'm going to make you bleed'?" Comfort asked.
Freeman said he didn't remember Brown saying anything. He said he noticed that Brown was holding a knife behind his back and he asked Brown if he was going to stab him with it and then turned back to Mullen. He said Brown immediately did step toward him and swing the knife upward, stabbing him in the right side of his chest.
"I remember looking down and seeing the handle of the knife against my chest for just a moment," he said.
Comfort asked Freeman to rate his level of aggressiveness before the incident, with one being "not angry at all" and 10 being "livid." Freeman placed himself at "maybe a two."
"I wasn't angry with Joe," he said. "I thought we were joking around, and I didn't think he'd take it serious. I didn't think he was mad."
Amy Norton, an assistant county attorney, asked Freeman if he remembered Mullen reaching his arm out to stop Brown from stabbing Freeman. He said he remembered Mullen moving his hand and he remembered Mullen "freaking out." As Mullen and his girlfriend drove him to the hospital, he remembered hearing Mullen say that his hand had been cut.
"I was in shock," Freeman said. He said he remembered being covered in blood as Christina Murphy drove him to the hospital, but he didn't remember anything after arriving at Salina Regional Health Center until he woke up in Via Christi Hospital in Wichita. He said he spent two and a half weeks, one week of which was in intensive care, at the Wichita hospital.
Freeman said he lost half of his liver, his lung collapsed, and he required 15 units of blood because he lost all of the blood in his body twice.
