La Plata, MD – The trial of a man facing attempted first-degree murder charges opened in Charles County Circuit Court before Judge H. James West Monday, Oct. 19.
James Macauthur Spears, 36 of Waldorf (pictured), is accused of stabbing his wife’s ex-husband in the back Dec. 11, 2013.
Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Francis Granados said the trial came down to two words: wounded pride.
“Wounded pride to make a man do something stupid,” Granados said. “Wounded pride can make a man do something dangerous.”
Granados said when his wife’s ex-husband came to his house late at night, Spears lost it.
“He retrieved the biggest knife in his butcher’s block and chased him out of the home,” the prosecutor said. “As he was running, the man felt something hit him, one, two times in the back. The victim realizes he’s been stabbed. Blood starts coming through his shirt. The defendant was standing over him, yelling, ‘You came to my house, I’m going to kill you.’ ”
Granados said the victim went to his car and got a baseball bat, and the two men circled around the car, the victim with the bat, the defendant with the knife. Spears, backed off, Granados said, then the victim drove away and called 911.
“While he’s on the phone, he sees something behind him,” the prosecutor added. “He hears the defendant who has the knife running in the street after him. Thankfully, officers arrived on the scene.”
He said Spears threw the knife in a storm drain, where it was later recovered with DNA evidence from both the victim and the defendant.
“At that point, the investigation begins,” Granados stated. “And for what? Wounded pride.”
“I love how the state tries to brush this over,” Charles County Assistant Public Defender Michele Harewood told the jury.
Harewood asserted to the court that the defendant’s wife had been married to the man who came to his door, a man who frequently ingested PCP and drank alcohol. It was an abusive relationship that ended when she divorced the man and married the defendant.
“He met her and moved her to Charles County,” she said. “He [defendant] wanted her to be safe from him.”
She said the victim “went on another binge” and decided to visit his ex-wife.
Text messages, which she said the jury will see, display how the woman told her ex-husband repeatedly to go home, to stay away.
“Over and over she tells him ‘I’m calling the police,’ ‘don’t come,’ ” Harewood said. “Well, guess what? He shows up, banging on her door. He’s not in northwest DC anymore. He’s on their property. It’s 10 p.m. on a Wednesday night. The wife answers the door and he barges in. She says, ‘go.’ Mr. Spears pushes him back outside and closes the door. The victim goes to his car and comes back with a bat in his hand. The state failed to tell you that,” she added. “He comes back and starts banging on the door with the baseball bat. Yes, he [Spears] runs after him. He was trying to protect his wife. If he had wanted to, he would have taken that knife and put it where it would have mattered. The state says somebody’s pride was wounded. Mr. Spears’ pride wasn’t wounded. He was protecting his home, his wife, his castle.”
Testimony will continue Oct. 20.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com