St. Marks attempted homicide trial underway in District Court

The jury trial for Nevada St. Marks, a Havre man facing charges including attempted homicide for accusations he stabbed his friend multiple times after an argument about sex with an underage girl, began Monday afternoon in state District Court.

"Cordell Wilson tried to help his friend, and it nearly got him killed," Hill County Attorney Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson said in her opening statement to the jury.

St. Marks is charged with felony counts of attempted deliberate homicide and assault with a weapon.

His attorney, Steven Scott, did not make an opening statement.

Cole-Hodgkinson called four witnesses to the stand Tuesday afternoon.

Cole-Hogkinson said that Sept. 17, a group of kids packed into two cars and drank some beer by a fishing hole before coming back to St. Marks' home at the Hacienda Trailer Park. There they played some drinking games and drank some more. At one point, the conversation, led by St. Marks, steered to animated talk about the gangs Bloods and Crips, Cole-Hodgkinson said, adding that St. Marks brought out a knife during the gang talk.

Later that early morning, Wilson - who had not been there during the drinking - came by and walked in on St. Marks having sex with a girl, Cole-Hodgkinson said.

Wilson initially left, but came back and asked St. Marks how old the girl was. St. Marks told Wilson not to worry about it. He asked the girl how old she was and when she answered she was 21 Wilson didn't believe it, Cole-Hogkinson said.

Wilson tried to make St. Marks understand all the good things he had and "he shouldn't put it all on the line for a kid," Cole-Hodgkinson said.

Wilson wanted to leave, but St. Marks asked him to take a shot of alcohol before he did. Wilson lifted his arm to take a shot and that's when St. Marks stabbed him with a nine-inch serrated knife in the armpit and under the right nipple. The blood was so bad, Cole-Hodgkinson told jurors, that it surprised the responding EMT enough to cuss loudly.

St. Marks, who left the scene, was found later and the only injury he had was a fresh hicky on his neck, she said.

"All Cordell Wilson did was point out some truths the defendant didn't want to hear," Cole-Hodgkinson said, adding those truths got him stabbed.

The first witness, responding officer Dylan Kulla, said he believed Wilson's injuries were so serious he didn't think he'd make it.

"I thought he was going to die there," Kulla said.

Kulla said he saw three wounds: a stab under Wilson's left armpit, a laceration on his left elbow and another cut under his right nipple.

In his cross-examination, Scott asked Kulla if he was a medical professional and then called the cuts on Wilson's chest and elbow superficial.

Havre EMT Captain Cody McLain testified that he arrived to the scene and was so surprised he cussed out loud.

"We seen a guy lying on the porch in a pool of blood," McLain said. " ... uncontrolled bleeding coming from the male laying on the porch."

McLain said he called a code trauma, which alerts the hospital emergency room staff the situation is very severe and "all hands on deck" are needed. During his 12 years as an EMT, McLain said, he had called a code trauma only one other time.

In his cross-examination, Scott asked McLain if he thought Havre's size played a role in the amount of code traumas he has seen. If he were to work in Dallas or Albuquerque, they would probably be more common, right? Scott asked.

"Possibly," McLain said.

The girl with whom St. Marks was involved with that night testified to how the group of six or so people started drinking the day before and continued doing so into the early morning hours of Sept. 18.

She said Wilson got upset with St. Marks early that morning for having sex with her because she was underage. She told jurors she was 15 at the time. She said she blacked out and didn't remember having sex, only that she awoke as the two were partially undressed and parting.

The girl said she was not in the room - by now she had been escorted out by another person - when she heard a commotion between St. Marks and Wilson. After the stabbing, she said she knew it was Wilson because he was lying on the porch, near where the commotion occurred.

During his cross examination, Scott asked about the amount of alcohol everyone drank, including her, and her testimony that she never actually saw St. Marks stab anyone, only that she her "an altercation."

The last witness was Dustin Welch, who called the police after Wilson was stabbed.

Welch said he took the girl out of St. Marks' home after finding out the two had intercourse. He was on the porch, smoking, when he looked through the window and saw wrestling and then the two "kind of hugging." He went inside and Wilson was holding his chest and saying St. Marks stabbed him.

"From the looks of it, I can tell he done it," Welch said of St. Marks.

Welch said he grabbed a shirt and held it on Wilson's wound, trying to control the bleeding.

In Scott's cross-examination, Welch said he had also hear laughing and St. Marks and Wilson wrestling around. But then he saw Wilson gushing blood, Welch added.

Welch answered many questions with uncertainty, or "I don't know," attributing the haze to alcohol.

"You were drinking, (St.Marks) was drinking - everybody was drinking, right?" Scott asked.

"Yeah," Welch said.

The trial continues today. Wilson was scheduled to testify this morning.