LOGAN – A young man charged with murder, among other offenses, began his trial in Hocking County Common Pleas Court Monday morning. The afternoon featured opening statements from both the prosecution and defense.
Isaac T. Pence, 21, of Fairfield County, was indicted in May 2023 in connection with a fatal stabbing that had occurred the previous month, during an overnight party in a cabin near Sugar Grove.
As suggested by a Logan Daily News report back in November, the crux of the case may rest on whether or not Pence was acting in self-defense when he stabbed a 22-year old Lancaster man, Charles Starner.
In his opening remarks, special prosecutor William Walton of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office painted the scene as a weekend of partying and drug use gone awry, with an intoxicated Pence acting as the instigator of the violence that took place.
It was a crowded scene, with multiple eyewitnesses set to testify over the course of the trial.
The moments before the stabbing were portrayed by the prosecution as an attempt by people at the party to get Pence to "just f---ing leave" in response to his violent behavior, which allegedly included shoving down a couple of guests.
The altercation then moved outside, where Pence, pinned partially inside his car by the door by two people, including Starner, retrieved a knife and stabbed Starner in the arm, the shoulder, and the neck.
The defendant "was definitely going to have the last word – and he did," Walton alleged.
The prosecution then laid out the several requirements that have to be met in order to successfully argue an act of self-defense.
A juror must believe that Pence did not bring about the conflict; that he was in imminent danger of bodily harm, and believed he was in danger; that he did not use unreasonable force; and that the force did not show revenge or criminal intent.
Pence's defense attorney Robert Krapenc took the floor second, and described the events outside before the stabbing as a “10-on-one” fight where the defendant was "surrounded" like a "sitting duck."
He moved then to the last seconds just before the stabbing, when Pence was trapped between his car and its door, refusing to leave in an attempt to protect either himself or his girlfriend at the time, Sabra Flagg.
"He didn't want to stay, he didn't want to fight, he didn't want the last word," the attorney claimed. Pence was, the defense argued, in fear of his life.
"It was a tragic event, but he reacted appropriately" in stabbing Starner, Krapenc concluded.
Email at rmorris@logandaily.com
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