A man on trial for allegedly beating an acquaintance to death with a baseball bat testified Thursday that he feared for his life, was acting in self-defense and didn’t intend to kill the man.
Stephen Reichow told a Clark County Superior Court jury that the acquaintance, Brandon Maulding, was intoxicated and charged at him with a bat in his hand while outside a storage warehouse in Battle Ground.
“I’m really panicked at this point. I’m feeling hunted,” said the 35-year-old Battle Ground man, who’s facing murder charges.
The case went to the jury late Thursday. Deliberations will resume Monday.
Reichow said he put up his hand to stop the blow from Maulding, grabbed the baseball bat and yanked it away. Maulding’s hands appeared to go to his pockets, where Reichow knew there was a pocket knife, he said, so his protective instincts took over.
“I struck my attacker several times,” Reichow said, adding that he did not hesitate. “I’m just trying to stop the attack.”
Reichow said it was dark and that he couldn’t see the extent of Maulding’s injuries or the amount of blood as he lay on the ground. He asked the man if he wanted him to call for help, he said, and then he crouched down and checked his pulse. That’s when he went to seek help at a nearby residence and had them call 911, he said.
Maulding, who was 36, was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.
But in his closing arguments later Thursday afternoon, Deputy Prosecutor James Smith urged the jury not to take Reichow’s story at face value.
He reiterated that Reichow struck Maulding 20 times in the head with the bat during the altercation on Aug. 1, 2015, not seven times, like Reichow estimated. And there were blows to the back of Maulding’s head, which indicate he was lying face down at one point, Smith said.
“If I’m in a bar and someone throws water on my face, is it reasonable for me to draw a handgun and shoot them five times? No,” Smith told the jury.
Reichow’s hands were covered in blood, “literally caught red-handed,” Smith said. He added that Maulding had no defensive wounds, nor did Reichow. “We’ve seen what he is capable of.”
The altercation began while the men were at the storage unit of Maulding’s girlfriend, Anne Tanninen.
The trio were inside the storage space when Tanninen received a strange phone call from someone talking about drugs and money. The call was a prank, but Tanninen said she believed she was being “gang stalked” — which can include being harassed by an organized group of people.
Tanninen became upset after the call and started accusing Reichow of being involved somehow.
Reichow told the jury that Maulding grabbed an ax and appeared to be in an altered state. Both men had been drinking before they arrived at the storage facility.
Reichow said he thought the situation was becoming dangerous, so he went outside. Tanninen continued making accusatory statements toward him, he said, and Maulding had the baseball bat and was tapping it on his foot saying, “Come here, boy, come on.”
“It goes against my greater sense to approach someone swinging a bat or threatening me,” Reichow told the jury.
He ran away, saw a trailer and hid underneath it. However, he didn’t feel safe under there, so he came out and tried to walk away from the area, he said. That’s when Tanninen’s vehicle came around the corner. Maulding got out with the bat in his hand and squared up to Reichow, he said.
What happened after he disarmed Maulding is a “blur,” Reichow said.
Smith questioned why Reichow didn’t use his cellphone to call for help afterward.
His attorney, Sean Downs, told the jury during his closing arguments that Reichow didn’t have his wits about him. He argued that if Reichow intended to kill Maulding, why did he summon help?
While testifying, Reichow said he disagreed with the medical examiner’s findings on the number of blows Maulding sustained and the trauma to the back of his head. He also said he didn’t notice the blood splatter and that the prosecution may have altered the gruesome photos it presented of Maulding after the beating.
Reichow also argued that a woman who testified that she saw Reichow strangling Maulding after the beating lied on the stand.
