Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 21/05) - A man on trial for stabbing a teen in the neck during a brawl last fall testified Friday he was acting in self-defence.

Jamie Martens said he knifed the 6'3", 200-pound victim after the two struggled outside of the Shell gas station on Range Lake Road on Sept. 30, 2004.

"I tried to talk him out of violence," Martens said during the third day of testimony in his aggravated assault trial.

"(He) attacked me."

Witness accounts from last week confirmed the eventual victim started the fight, pushing Martens after he walked out of the gas station convenience store with his girlfriend.

Martens testified Friday he pulled a knife from his pocket after the man - who was about five inches taller and 40 pounds heavier - shoved him a second time.

"I told him and he saw it," he said about drawing the knife and opening the blade.

Martens said the man came towards him and knocked the knife into his hand. The bladed sliced through Martens' palm, severing tendons and breaking a bone.

That, Martens testified, was when he swung the knife at the victim's neck.

"Everyone here knows this was self-defence," Martens said, under cross-examination from Crown attorney Loretta Colton.Colton said, however, Martens wanted to get even with the man after a school-yard brawl earlier that month ended with the victim ordering Martens to "kiss his boot."

During that melee, Martens said the man and several friends pounded him while he was curled in the fetal position in the bed of a friend's truck.

"You wanted to get back at him," Colton said as Martens calmly shook his head.

"No," he answered.

The victim was rushed to Stanton Territorial Hospital with a deep knife wound to the neck that, according to one witness, was "pumping" blood.

The man, then 18, suffered a stroke, lost sight in one eye and eventually had to go through a long rehabilitation that included re-learning how to eat and read.

Martens, 21, is now living with his girlfriend in Vancouver. He testified that after the stabbing, he called police.

"I felt really bad," he said. "I don't want a death on my conscience."

Testimony in the aggravated assault trial began Wednesday. One witness - the best friend of the victim - told an 11-person jury that Martens stabbed the victim in the neck after being pushed, but not in response to a full frontal attack.

The victim testified on Tuesday, saying he had no memory of the Sept. 20 fight.

The trial is expected to continue this week.

Aggravated assault carries a maximum of 14 years in prison.