LOCKPORT – Defendant Marc A. Madore testified Wednesday that he fought with a friend over a knife after he was cut on the arm and didn’t mean to hurt him.
However, Assistant District Attorney Claudette S. Caldwell, cross-examining Madore, made it clear that she felt the one-centimeter cut on Madore’s arm paled in comparison to the near-fatal wounds suffered by Madore’s friend, Shawn Stoltz.
A Niagara County Court jury will deliberate today on whether Madore is guilty of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, or whether he should be acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
Madore, 42, of South Avenue, Niagara Falls, was charged in the wake of the knifing on the night of Oct. 28 outside Stoltz’s Ferry Avenue home.
Stoltz, 37, was stabbed in the head, back, chest and abdomen. He managed to walk two blocks to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center despite severe loss of blood.
Madore testified that Stoltz beat him up a month or so before the stabbing. “He got me pretty good,” Madore said.
Asked by defense attorney Patrick Balkin if he had seen Stoltz with a knife, Madore answered, “I’ve seen him with several different types of knives. Guns, too, and baseball bats.”
On the day of the knife fight, Madore said, he visited his sister, who lives at the same address as Stoltz, and spent the day drinking.
“I probably drank at least 10 beers that day, and they were big beers ... 22 to 24 ounces,” Madore testified. “I didn’t use no crack that day. They wouldn’t give me none.”
But he said everyone else in the apartment, including Stoltz and some friends, was using crack.
Stoltz and he argued over the smell of some spray paint Madore had used on a chair on the front porch at the request of Madore’s sister. “He was throwing a temper tantrum. He was busting stuff,” Madore said.
After Madore’s sister quelled that and told Madore to go home, he said, he was confronted at the front gate by Stoltz, who cut his arm with his knife.
“I started reaching, trying to grab the knife. We fell to the ground and we were fighting over the knife,” Madore said.
“What happened next?” Balkin asked. “He got hurt,” Madore answered.
“It’s your testimony that when you stabbed him twice in the chest, you didn’t do that on purpose?” Caldwell asked.
“We were fighting over it and we fell with the knife,” Madore replied.
email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
However, Assistant District Attorney Claudette S. Caldwell, cross-examining Madore, made it clear that she felt the one-centimeter cut on Madore’s arm paled in comparison to the near-fatal wounds suffered by Madore’s friend, Shawn Stoltz.
A Niagara County Court jury will deliberate today on whether Madore is guilty of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, or whether he should be acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
Madore, 42, of South Avenue, Niagara Falls, was charged in the wake of the knifing on the night of Oct. 28 outside Stoltz’s Ferry Avenue home.
Stoltz, 37, was stabbed in the head, back, chest and abdomen. He managed to walk two blocks to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center despite severe loss of blood.
Madore testified that Stoltz beat him up a month or so before the stabbing. “He got me pretty good,” Madore said.
Asked by defense attorney Patrick Balkin if he had seen Stoltz with a knife, Madore answered, “I’ve seen him with several different types of knives. Guns, too, and baseball bats.”
On the day of the knife fight, Madore said, he visited his sister, who lives at the same address as Stoltz, and spent the day drinking.
“I probably drank at least 10 beers that day, and they were big beers ... 22 to 24 ounces,” Madore testified. “I didn’t use no crack that day. They wouldn’t give me none.”
But he said everyone else in the apartment, including Stoltz and some friends, was using crack.
Stoltz and he argued over the smell of some spray paint Madore had used on a chair on the front porch at the request of Madore’s sister. “He was throwing a temper tantrum. He was busting stuff,” Madore said.
After Madore’s sister quelled that and told Madore to go home, he said, he was confronted at the front gate by Stoltz, who cut his arm with his knife.
“I started reaching, trying to grab the knife. We fell to the ground and we were fighting over the knife,” Madore said.
“What happened next?” Balkin asked. “He got hurt,” Madore answered.
“It’s your testimony that when you stabbed him twice in the chest, you didn’t do that on purpose?” Caldwell asked.
“We were fighting over it and we fell with the knife,” Madore replied.
email: tprohaska@buffnews.com