PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man accused of stabbing with a kitchen knife the man whose property he lived on was cleared by a jury Thursday.
After four hours of deliberation, a Clallam County Superior Court jury found Nikolai Jared Logan, 21, not guilty of one count of first-degree assault in connection with the stabbing of 60-year-old Douglas Baker, who was allowing Logan to stay at his home.
Baker was treated and discharged from Olympic Medical Center after suffering multiple lacerations, including a deep wound in his left cheek, during a fight with Logan at his home on Ripplebrook Drive off Deer Park Road at about 7:30 p.m. April 11.
John Troberg, the Clallam County deputy prosecuting attorney assigned to the case, said he was not able to show that Logan did not stab Baker in self-defense, which was the assertion of the defense in the case.
“I couldn’t disprove beyond a reasonable doubt this claim of self-defense,” Troberg said.
“It’s very disappointing.”
Loren Oakley, the Clallam County Public Defender attorney who represented Logan, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Said Baker struck first
Troberg said the defense claimed that Baker struck first in a fight that reportedly stemmed from an argument over household chores.
Logan reportedly fled the home after the fight, according to Clallam County Sheriff’s Office accounts, and was found four hours later walking along the side of Deer Park Road.
Logan was arrested without incident.
Both Baker and Logan testified during the three-day trial, Troberg said, and both told differing versions of what happened that April night.
As a result of the fight, Troberg said Baker suffered a 6-inch-long superficial cut across his stomach and a kitchen-knife wound through his left cheek that went through to the inside of the mouth.
Logan suffered a gash to the fleshy part of his right hand between his finger and thumb, Troberg added.
“[It was] kind of a nasty struggle,” Troberg said.
Troberg said he attempted to show the claim of Logan acting in self-defense was impossible due to the arrangement of furniture in the room where the fight happened, though the jury apparently was not convinced.
“The evidence to prove [that Baker was the victim] to the standard of proof just wasn’t there,” Troberg said.
“I think [the prosecution] did what we could with what we had.”
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.