Palmer bar fight leads to stabbing, charges

PALMER — A Sunday fight at Klondike Mike’s ended with one man stabbed, hospitalized with a punctured lung, and another in jail.

An affidavit Palmer Police Department Officer Jamie Hammons filed with the case against Johnathan Robert William Gilliam, 21, says both sides involved in the altercation agree that Gilliam stabbed Richard Beck in the chest.

After that, though, the stories diverge.

Palmer police were summoned to the bar at 4:37 a.m. Sunday and spoke to Beck and his nephew Michael Schneider, Hammons says in his affidavit. Schneider told police that he and Beck had been playing pool with two other men, who turned out to be Gilliam and his friend, Rusty Meyer.

Beck and Schneider both told officers their opponents at the billiard table became angry and all four of them went outside and started to fight, Hammons says in his affidavit. Beck told officers he squared off against Gilliam. Beck said he started to get the upper hand, at which point Gilliam pulled out a knife, stabbed him, punched him in the mouth, then tried to stab him again before Beck fought both men off.

Gilliam and Meyer later came to the Palmer Police Department to share their side of things, Hammons says. Gilliam told officers it was Schneider and Beck who became angry while the four played pool, tossing around insults until they all went outside. Gilliam said he was pushed in the back, saw Meyer and Schneider going at it, then took three punches in the face from Beck.

Gilliam told police he knocked Beck down, Beck got up and started reaching into his jacket, according to the affidavit.

“Gilliam said he thought he saw the butt of a gun,” Hammons says. “He said he wasn’t going to take any chances, so he pulled his knife out and stabbed the man in the chest. Gilliam said he ran after that.”

According to Hammons’ affidavit, Beck was taken to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and his blood pressure dropped to “dangerous levels.” His right lung was also punctured, the police officer wrote.

Hammons reported that officers later recovered Gilliam’s knife and the pants he was wearing from his sister’s house. The knife had been washed clean, something Gilliam told officers he’d done.

Monday, Gilliam made his first appearance in Palmer court before Magistrate David Zwink.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Perry said his office had declined to charge Gilliam with attempted murder, but is moving ahead with first-degree assault and evidence-tampering charges.

Zwink said that the assault charge carries a possible 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine and the evidence tampering charge could possibly bring five years in prison with a $50,000 fine.

When Zwink asked if Beck had been notified of the day’s hearing, Perry said Beck was “still in the hospital, your honor, may be there about a week.”

Gilliam remains jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $15,000 bail. He is next due in court March 13.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiers-man.com or 352-2270.