BANGOR, Maine — The man stabbed 11 times in the back 16 months ago by the estranged husband of his girlfriend took the stand Wednesday in the jury trial of Ryan Witmer, 33, of Eddington.
The victim, a 42-year-old Bangor-area teacher, testified in Penobscot County Superior Court that Witmer broke into his estranged wife’s Orrington home late on Saturday, June 28, 2008, and tried to kill him. He said that after the defendant stabbed him during a struggle, Witmer turned the knife on himself and stabbed himself twice in the chest before slitting his own throat.
A large color photograph of the teacher’s wounds was displayed to the jury. It showed bloody slash marks of varying lengths across his back. A bandage was visible under his left armpit.
He also testified that his left hand was cut in the altercation. As a result of his wounds, both his lungs collapsed, the victim said.
The teacher told the jury that he was at the home of Witmer’s estranged wife watching a movie when he heard a loud sound coming from the back of the house. He went to investigate, he said, while the woman ran upstairs.
“I stood listening,” he testified. “Then, I saw Ryan run toward me. He said ‘I’m going to kill you. You’re going to die.’”
The victim said that he did not see the knife but felt blows against his back.
“I could feel him slamming my back,” the teacher told the jury. “I assumed I was getting punched in the back. [When we moved] in front of the [front door], he brought the knife in front of me. That was the first time I saw it. I put my hand up and he stabbed my hand.”
The teacher, who spent six years in the U.S. Marine Corps and has a 1st degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do, said he backed through the living room and into the kitchen, where he tripped behind an island and fell on his back. He said that the next thing he knew, Witmer was standing over him with the knife.
At that point, he testified, Witmer’s estranged wife shouted at him from the living room.
“He stopped his pursuit of me and turned toward her,” the teacher said. “He said, ‘There you are, you [expletive]. You’re going to die.’ Then, he ran toward her slicing [the air.]”
When the male victim was able to get up, he told the jury, he went to the living room and put a choke hold on Witmer. That allowed the woman to get away from her now ex-husband. It was then that Witmer stabbed himself, the teacher testified.
The teacher and Witmer’s ex-wife met in January 2009 when she took her child from her first marriage to a Brewer karate studio where he was an instructor, the teacher testified Wednesday. She told Witmer, she wanted a divorce in April and her husband moved to his parents’ home in Eddington, Witmer’s ex-wife told the jury Tuesday.
She also testified that she began dating the teacher early in June, after she and Witmer had agreed to a settlement and visitation schedule for their then 7-month-old daughter. Both the ex-wife and the teacher denied seeing each other socially before Witmer had moved out of the Orrington home.
The ex-wife told the jury that the teacher now lives with her, her two children from her previous marriage and her daughter with Witmer. She said that the two plan to marry.
The teacher said that his 15-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, which ended in early 2009, spends two weeks a month with him in Orrington.
Witmer’s attorney, Daniel Lilley of Portland, asked the male victim if he had a knife in his pocket the night of the incident. The teacher said he did but that he never took it out of his pocket.
Lilley hinted Monday in his opening statement that although his client should not have been at the house, he did not initiate the attack.
“Fighting for your life is not a crime,” Lilley said Monday. “Survival is an instinct. You can hurt someone, even kill someone, if you do it to survive.”
The trial is expected to go the jury at the end of the week.
Witmer was indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury on Aug. 8, 2008, on charges of aggravated attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault, burglary, violation of a protective order, domestic violence stalking and assault. Later the same month, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He has been held at the Penobscot County Jail since his arrest the day of the alleged attack.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on the aggravated attempted murder charge and up to 30 years on the elevated aggravated assault and the burglary charges.
990-8207