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thedrifter
05-23-07, 08:41 AM
Published - May, 23, 2007
Ward: 'I was scared to death
Defendant takes stand, tells of remorse for fatal stabbing
Kris Wernowsky
kwernowsky@pnj.com

Brandon Ward said he feared for his life as he plunged a blade into Joey Hall's body three times.

"I felt terrible," Ward said. "I thought about killing myself. I was thinking of what my mother would think and about my Marine Corps career."

The 20-year-old former Marine faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. He took the witness stand Tuesday to give his account of what happened in the early morning hours of June 25 when he stabbed and killed Hall, 18. Ward also is accused of attempted first-degree murder for stabbing and seriously wounding 19-year-old Joseph Ruinato.

Two uniformed Marines came to Santa Rosa County Circuit Court on Tuesday to show their support for Hall and Ruinato. Two uniformed Marines who are friends of the Ward family also appeared in court Monday and Tuesday. Ward was a Marine at the time of the stabbings.

Prosecutor Bobby Elmore spent a great deal of time last week developing an image of Hall and Ruinato as Ward's unsuspecting victims who only briefly met the defendant and his girlfriend, Samantha Sparling, at a party earlier that night.

Ward said he was a stranger at the party and felt like an outcast because he was a Marine. He said he then was pressured into wrestling and fighting with several partygoers so he wouldn't appear weak in front of his girlfriend.

Several witnesses said Ward later struck Sparling in the face when he caught her in a sex act with another man. Sparling said Monday that she lied to investigators about being struck. On Tuesday, Ward denied hitting her. Several men at the party who believed Ward did strike her later attacked him.

Ward jumped in his car and sped away, leaving Sparling behind. En route to Sparling's home where he lived on the weekends, Ward said he received threatening phone calls from people at the party.

When confronted at Sparling's Munson Highway home, Ward said he showed a knife to Hall in hopes of deterring an attack. Ward said Hall lunged at him and struck him on the left side of his face. Later in his testimony, he said Hall pummeled him.

"After I was struck, I was scared to death," Ward said. "He told me he was going to kill me. I proceeded to stab him until he went away."

"Did you feel your life was in danger?" defense attorney Leo Thomas asked.

"I thought it was about to be over," Ward said.

He also said that he attacked Ruinato only after the former Army Reservist struck him on his left side.

"He struck me basically in the same way Joe Hall did," he said.

Under cross-examination, Elmore asked Ward how he showed Hall the knife.

Ward explained that he had learned defensive tactics during Marine bayonet training.

"You held that shiny knife right up at Joe Hall?" Elmore asked, with the knife in his hand.

"Yes sir, that's the technique," Ward said.

"He just kept coming?" Elmore asked. "You hid that knife from Joe Hall and stabbed him when he didn't see it coming. You never showed that knife to Joe Hall, did you?"

Stand your ground defense

The defense is arguing that under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, someone can use deadly force if they feel their life is in danger. Thomas has said throughout the case that Ward was standing behind his car in plain view of Hall and Ruinato as they brought Sparling to the house.

Ward maintained his calm demeanor as Elmore asked why the defendant felt it necessary to defend himself with a knife in an attack by two men, when he had been in a fight earlier in the night and didn't brandish a knife.

"Why didn't you pull out your knife and stab the other guys that were beating you?" Elmore asked.

Ward said he didn't think about it.

"It's because you didn't get to wait in the dark with an open knife," Elmore said. "You were angry when you waited in the dark with your open knife."

Video use questioned

Thomas showed the jury a violent video taken from Hall's Web site in an effort to prove Hall had violent tendencies.

The three-minute clip -- "Blood Splattered Satisfaction" by the New Jersey heavy metal band Waking The Cadaver -- depicts a fictional kidnapping and dismemberment of a teenage girl.

Ward told the court that he had twice viewed the video on Hall's Web profile weeks before the stabbings. He testified that the Web address for Hall's profile, which included the phrase "joehallwillkillyourfamily," made him uneasy about Sparling's acquaintance with Hall.

However, Elmore wondered during his cross-examination why Sparling's longtime MySpace profile, "killyousweetlywithablade" didn't cause some uneasiness for Ward.

"She's not the type of person that goes around killing people sweetly with a blade, is she?" Elmore asked. "You knew (Hall's profile and the video) was just a kid doing something shocking and fun."

Ward said he wasn't sure and Elmore later implied that Ward hadn't actually seen the video until after the stabbings.

One member of the jury, a younger woman, winced several times during the viewing. Another juror, a younger man, shook his head while the music clip played.

The case is expected to resume at 8:30 a.m. today.

Ellie