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Testimony from the man he stabbed helped convict David Ybarra of battery with a deadly weapon Thursday in Kosciusko Superior Court.
The jury deliberated more than four hours before finding Ybarra guilty of the battery, a Class C felony. Ybarra is scheduled to be sentenced April 27 at 8:30 a.m. He faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.
Greg Alfano testified that he was tending bar on Sept. 17, 1995, when a fight broke out inside The Post. The participants were asked to leave, but a man came into the bar saying there was a fight going on outside.
"Everything was pushed outside [the bar] and the fight started," Alfano remembered. He said he grabbed hold of a man who broke away from him and then Alfano grabbed another man to stop him when he was stabbed from behind.
"I felt something cold on my back," Alfano said. "I turned around, he was smiling at me like, 'I got ya.' I saw him holding the knife, and I thought of my two children. I took off running."
Alfano went on to testify that he looked around and saw Ybarra lunge after him as if he would chase Alfano. Alfano said he ran to his car but the door was locked and he could not get into the back door of The Post because it was also locked.
When asked what went through his mind when he was stabbed, Alfano said, "The first thing I thought of was my two children. ... I thought I was going to die, and didn't know what happened."
Alfano gave police a positive identification of Ybarra that night when police brought Ybarra to the ambulance where Alfano was being treated.
Byron Tinkey, deputy prosecutor, showed the jury the shirt Alfano was wearing the night he was stabbed. When he asked Alfano what the large, dark stains were, Alfano said, "It's not ketchup."
When Alfano was asked if Ybarra was the man who stabbed him, Alfano said, "There is no doubt in my mind."
Pierceton police officer Jeff Larsen testified he was on patrol near The Post when he saw a man staggering down an alley. When Larsen saw the man, identified as Alfano, bleeding from the back, he called for more police.
Larsen testified that there was a fight going on at the front of the bar as well as one at the side of the bar involving at least 20 people and as many spectators. Larsen said he had to spray the crowd with pepper spray to stop the fight.
The other man who was stabbed during the fight testified about the chaos outside the bar that night. Bill King, whose mother and stepfather own The Post, testified that he went outside when he heard the fight break out. King said, "I went out front to try to keep the peace."
King described the scene as Alfano was in front of him also trying to break up the fight. He said he saw Alfano get a scared look on his face and fall to the ground. Alfano then got up and ran down the alley. As King stood on the sidewalk, he said he felt something touch his shoulder, turned and realized he had been stabbed.
Jerry Angiano testified that he confessed in 1996 to stabbing King the night of the fight. Angiano also said he gave Ybarra, his brother-in-law, a knife as they left The Post. Angiano said Ybarra gave him the knife back after the fight before police questioned them.
Ybarra testified in his own defense that he took the knife from Angiano because he feared Angiano might cause trouble. When asked by court-appointed attorney Jamelyn Freeman if he used the knife to stab anyone that night, Ybarra said, "No, ma'am."
Tinkey questioned Ybarra on his story of the fight and what actually happened that night. Tinkey also asked Ybarra why he lied to police who asked him if he had a knife during the fight.
Ybarra answered that police asked him if he had a knife, and he did not have it during the questioning, so he didn't think it was a lie.
During closing arguments, Tinkey asked the jury to compare Larsen's testimony to Ybarra's story as well as Alfano's "compelling" testimony. Freeman pointed out that Alfano may have had difficulty identifying Ybarra because of the chaos during the fight.
While Alfano listened to the arguments against his testimony, he shook his head and put his face in his hands.
"It brings back old memories," Alfano said after seeing Ybarra in the courtroom. "I keep seeing the blade and his smile. ... I don't have any feeling toward him now," Alfano said of Ybarra.
"Every time I go into a bar, I'm nervous," Alfano said.
"If I'm in a bar, and someone touches my shoulder, I better know who they are pretty quick," King agreed.
After the guilty verdict, Tinkey said, "I believe it is another example of how the jury system works. It is a ratification of our system of justice. The jury carefully weighed the evidence and came up with a verdict they should be proud of."
"I hope he pays for the crime he actually committed," Alfano said of Ybarra's sentence. "With a knife, you aren't trying to make [someone] mad ... you are trying to kill. Guns and knives kill people."
Alfano has managed to keep a sense of humor throughout his ordeal: "It gives 'stabbed in the back' a whole new meaning."
