A security consultant testified Thursday that a 25-year-old Bay area man who stabbed two Harrah's casino security guards conceivably was in fear of his life, based on the way he was treated.
"Three on one, pushed in a dark corner, a chokehold?" asked Robert Gardner. "There was a proportionate level of fear to use lethal force to defend yourself."
Gardner was called to testify on behalf of Justin Ready, a disc jockey who was charged with attempted murder and other counts in the Nov. 27, 2005, attack on two casino security guards who were evicting him from the casino.
"Anybody in a situation where you can't breathe, a sense of panic sets in," Gardner said. "You're going to grasp at whatever straws are available."
Ready, who has maintained he acted in self-defense, was expected to testify Thursday afternoon.
Gardner said the role of the security guard was not to get physically involved.
"Unlike law enforcement officers who have tremendous amounts of training, aggressive take-down techniques are really not the role of a security officer," he said.
The trouble began Nov. 27 when Ready, who performs as MC Fader, got on the stage during a performance at the Altitude nightclub.
David Gontang, one of the Harrah's security officers injured by Ready, testified Wednesday that he ordered him off the stage.
After escorting him out of the club, witnesses said Gontang backed Ready up to a wall and attempted to pull the plastic admission band from Ready's arm.
Ready pulled his arm away from Gontang and a scuffle ensued as guard tried to take Ready to the floor.
According to reports, Ready used a knife to slash his way to an escape route.
Gontang and security guard Ahmet Albayrak were each stabbed in the neck during the altercation.
Authorities have a videotape of part of the scuffle.
"Ideally, you want everything on camera as a security document for liability and insurance and to establish that the conduct you did was appropriate," Gardner said.
He testified that from the initial contact, Ready did not appear to be a threat or appear intoxicated.
"You see Mr. Gontang assault Justin, push him against the wall," Gardner said after viewing the videotape. "Nothing occurred prior to justify that."
The security guard's behavior "takes a situation that wasn't going to be a problem and raises the temperature considerably," Gardner said.
Douglas County sheriff's investigator Ron Elges testified Thursday that the security guards' neck wounds appeared to be offensive rather than defensive.
"He goes straight to the area that is very vulnerable, very hard to deflect easily. Mr. Ready had the opportunity with other targets, the belly line, hands, to stop the victims from attacking him.
"He passes all of them and goes straight to the area that is very vulnerable," Elges testified.
If convicted of the attempted murder charges, Ready faces up to 40 years in prison.
He also is being tried on charges of two counts of battery with a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm and battery with a deadly weapon.
He has been in Douglas County Jail on $200,000 bail since his arrest last December.
The jury trial began Tuesday in the case when a jury of seven men and six women, including an alternate, was seated to hear the charges.
The jury heard from Refugio Martinez also known as DJ(R) Styles who was on stage Nov. 27 when the incident occurred.
"I saw Justin in the front of the stage and went over and shook his hand," Martinez said. "He came up on the stage and I told him he had to get off the stage. We had just got told by security we couldn't have people coming on stage."
Martinez said he saw security guards telling Ready he had to get off the stage, but he didn't see the man leave.
"I didn't get into a full-on conversation with him, I didn't see anything," Martinez said. "My job is to sit there and play the music, not to get him off the stage."
His lawyer, Dirk Manoukian of Concord, Calif., claims Ready acted in self-defense after the security guards placed him in a chokehold to restrain him.
"He honestly and sincerely believed he was in imminent danger," Manoukian said.
Prosecutor Dina Salvucci counseled the jury "to focus on what you hear from the witnesses during the trial.
"The really great evidence is the two security guards are alive and here to tell you what happened from their perspective," she said.
