St. Marks says he blacked out, no memory of stabbing friend

As the jury trial of the Havre man accused of attempted deliberate homicide continued Wednesday, jurors watched a video in which the alleged attacker says he drunkenly blacked out and has no recollection of stabbing his friend.

“I can’t believe I stabbed someone, man,” Nevada St. Marks said in the interview video. “Everything is just a blur. I got glimpses, spots throughout the whole night when I’m coming to and then I’m gone.”

The trial for St. Marks, 22, started Tuesday. As an alternative to the attempted deliberate homicide, he is also charged with felony assault with a weapon for an incident in which Cordell Wilson, a longtime friend, was stabbed multiple times Sept. 18.

Wilson was the first witness to testify Wednesday in District Court.

Wilson said he arrived in Havre Sept. 17 from Browning and planned to finish tattoos he’d begun on St. Marks. After coming over to St. Marks’ place in the Hacienda Trailer Park, he went over to the home of St. Marks’ twin brother, who lived close by, because St. Marks was not there, Wilson testified.

Wilson testified he went back to St. Marks later with his tattoo equipment. He walked in on what appeared to be St. Marks partially naked on top of a girl. He said he left the house to let St. Marks and the girl collect themselves. When he came back, he said, St. Marks and the girl were on separate futons.

Wilson said he and St. Marks discussed what each had been up to since they last saw each other, tattoos, the brothers’ discord — St. Marks and his brother were not talking to each other — and roofing, a topic the two had different opinions regarding trade technicalities. The conversation then turned to something more serious, he said.

“We talked about why he was with somebody else and not with his girlfriend,” Wilson said.

Wilson said he also asked the girl, who was in the room, how old she was. First she said she was 21, then 18, Wilson said, adding he didn’t believe her either time.

“She didn’t look it at all,” Wilson said.

The girl, who testified Tuesday, said she was 15 at the time.

Wilson said he told St. Marks he was lucky and privileged to have so much and he shouldn’t be careless. The conversation raised “emotions,” Wilson said, and that he planned to leave because he didn’t feel comfortable.

St. Marks then asked him to take shots from a bottle of whiskey Wilson had with him, Wilson said. He testified that he raised his arm to take a shot and that’s when he felt a sharp pain. Experience told him he’d been stabbed, he said.

“I’d been stabbed before and it feels the exact same way — a sharp pain,” he said.

At the request of Hill County Attorney Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson, Wilson moved from the stand and stood in front of the jurors, lifted his white T-shirt and revealed several scars.

He pointed out scars from where they “reinflated my lungs,” scars from the drainage tubes during his time in the intensive care unit, and stab wound scars.

“That’s the one that actually pierced my lung,” Wilson said, his left arm up and his right hand pointing near his armpit.

After being stabbed, Wilson said, he tried to grab St. Marks and headbutt him. He wanted to chase him, he said. He also remembered calling his friend Dustin Welch for help.

“I remember blood squirting from my side,” Wilson said. “I became dizzy.”

At the hospital, he said, he found out he lost two liters of blood, that his lung had fully collapsed and they had to do immediate surgery to re-inflate his lungs.

During the cross examination, St. Marks’ attorney, Steven Scott, asked questions about Wilson’s conflicting versions of how he was positioned when he was stabbed. He told police he was with his back to St. Marks when he was stabbed, but testified he was with his side to his attacker. Scott asked Wilson if he had lunged at or hit St. Marks in the head. He asked Wilson if St. Marks asked him to leave and he refused, or if he instigated an argument by telling him that his grandfather didn’t know anything about roofing.

Wilson said answered no, no, no and “I don’t recall.”

Wilson testified that it was his decision to leave, and St. Marks never asked him to.

The rest of the day was filled with testimony from investigating detective Brian Cassidy of the Havre Police Department and an hour and half long video — which would take twice as long to play due to technical difficulties — of Cassidy’s interview with St. Marks hours after the stabbing.

From his investigation, Cassidy said, shoe blood prints showed two people had been in the room when all the blood spilled. He said a lot of blood was on the scene.

St. Marks was found walking on Old Post Road and arrested, Cassidy testified.

Cassidy said the blood he found on St. Marks’ body and clothes didn’t seem to have come from him because he didn’t have any wounds.

In the video interview, St. Marks told Cassidy the blood came from a nosebleed earlier in the day. He was riding in a car with friends and he slammed it against something when he tried to climb in the back seat, he said.

“There’s no blood on your nostrils,” Cassidy said in the video.

Cassidy told St. Marks someone was stabbed and a witness said he was the one who did it.

“Holy crap. Damn. I don’t even remember,” St. Marks said. “I can’t believe I stabbed someone.”

Cassidy told St. Marks it was Wilson who was stabbed. St. Marks said Wilson is his tattoo artist, but also a longtime friend.

“I’ve known this guy since Spiderman undies — we were best friends,” St. Marks says. “We’ve never argued. He was the perfect friend. He always had my back.”

St. Marks said the only reason he could think of why he would stab his friend is if he insulted him, his son, his family or his grandfather.

Back on the stand after the video was shown, Cassidy said St. Marks said he didn’t remember anything past a certain point early in the day before anyone came to his house. But throughout the interview, St. Marks brought up incidents at the house. He picked and chose, Cassidy said.

In his cross-examination, Scott pointed out pictures he said indicate the crime scene may have been tampered with. In one picture, an orange cup is standing, and in another, it’s toppled over. Cassidy said he didn’t know what that was about. In another picture, a certain futon shows to have items on it, and another, that futon has been cleared. Cassidy said that was probably because the second picture shows the scene after a second warrant had been granted.

The trial continued today with St. Marks saying he would take the stand to testify in his defense. Closing arguments and turning the case over to the jury could happen today or Friday.