WOODLAND — Emotions ran high in a Yolo County courtroom this week as family and friends of a Woodland homicide victim got their first glimpse of surveillance video that captured the fatal stabbing inside an East Street bar.
As some of them wept, two survivors of victim Kelly Mason Choate stormed out of the courtroom Wednesday shouting expletives at murder suspect Jeffrey Lemus, prompting bailiffs to summon additional officers in case tensions escalated further.
The hearing concluded Thursday with Yolo Superior Court Judge David Reed ruling that prosecutors had sufficient evidence for Lemus to stand trial on an open count of murder, though he said he wasn’t convinced a first-degree murder took place.
An open murder count also includes the lesser charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter.
“I don’t believe the evidence supports the suspicion that there was premeditation and deliberation,” Reed said. “There’s clearly enough evidence for manslaughter.”
Lemus, 55, is due back in court Feb. 5 for arraignment and setting of a trial date.
Prosecutor Kyle Hasapes played the video of the Dec. 5 stabbing toward the end of the court day Wednesday, illustrating the testimony he had solicited earlier from Woodland police officers and detectives that responded to the crime scene.
According to investigators, Lemus and Choate had been embroiled in a feud that began about a year earlier, when Choate allegedly stole Lemus’ bicycle and Lemus punched him in return. Lemus claims Choate would curse at him and “come at me” whenever they crossed paths after that.
They encountered one another a final time that Saturday night at Kenny’s Bar, where Lemus was sitting in the bar’s front patio area when Choate arrived around 8:40 p.m.
“He (Choate) said something like, ‘It’s your time,’ ” said Officer Zachary Ryno, quoting witnesses who observed the confrontation. As Choate walked into the bar, Lemus was heard to say that he “(expletive) hated that guy.”
Witnesses told police they then saw Lemus rise from his patio chair and enter the bar, where the altercation between him and Choate broke out several minutes later.
The surveillance video, played during Detective Ruben Esquivel’s testimony, shows Lemus making a gesture toward Choate from across the room as he walks toward the men’s bathroom. Witnesses reported that Choate cursed loudly at Lemus as he passed by.
Lemus stays inside the bathroom for several minutes, then walks out and gestures to Choate a second time, “almost like a challenge of some kind,” Esquivel said.
As Lemus approaches the bar’s exit, Choate rushes toward Lemus from his left. Punches are exchanged, and Lemus — his knife already in hand — unfolds the weapon and thrusts it toward Choate’s torso before turning and walking out the door.
From another angle, the video shows Choate stumbling backwards amid a crowd of stunned bystanders, clutching at his chest with his left hand, his right hand attempting to pull out the fishing knife he was known to carry from a sheath attached to his waistband. Seconds later he doubles over, grasping at a nearby pool table for support.
That’s about the time the drama unfolded in Reed’s courtroom, with one man loudly cursing at Lemus as he walked out, slamming the doors behind him. Another told the defendant, “You’re going to need a damn good lawyer, you son of a b—-,” his outburst triggering an admonition from the judge.
Choate, 53, died about an hour after the stabbing from a wound that, according to court testimony, severed one of his ribs and pierced both his left lung and his heart. Coroner’s officials also noted a large amount of methamphetamine in Choate’s system, though it did not contribute to his death.
Lemus stayed on scene, surrendering to an officer in the bar’s parking lot and turning over the alleged stabbing weapon — a folding knife that one detective said measured 18 inches long when fully extended.
“I would describe it as extremely large — not the type of folding knife that anybody would carry for any legitimate purpose,” Detective Joshua Amoruso testified.
While Lemus’ public defender, Ron Johnson, argued for a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter, citing Choate’s aggressive behavior toward his client at the bar, Hasapes said several factors justified the murder count.
Among them: the large knife — “a short sword,” the prosecutor called it — along with Lemus’ gestures that “baited” the victim and the time he may have taken to plan the attack inside the bar bathroom.
“This is not a case where self-defense is even an issue,” Hasapes said.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene