His family’s home was packed with mostly strangers who were drinking and doing drugs, a brawl had broken out and his stepbrother was bleeding profusely after being stabbed.
“He was sat in the chair. He was covered in blood,” the 19-year-old man testified Thursday in provincial court in St. John’s in the trial of four teenage boys charged in connection with the attack.
The four youths — whose names are banned from publication due to their age — each face a charge of aggravated assault.
The charges were laid following an incident at a house on Mahogany Place in Southlands subdivision on March 4, 2016.
The man on the stand said he had invited only a few people to his house that night, with the intention of having a few drinks and later getting in the hot tub.
But more and more people were showing up.
“There were so many people, I couldn’t control it,” said the man, who saw people throwing up and passing out, including a 12-year-old girl.
“It was getting rowdy. It was just a mess. … I was going around asking people to leave.”
He said his stepbrother, who was in and out of the house throughout the night, was also trying to get people to leave. He said at one point, one of the teenagers on trial had confronted his stepbrother, accusing him of hurting a friend. The man’s other older brother stepped in and broke it up.
Having had enough of the mayhem, he called 911, the man said.
Unknown to him at the time, he said, his stepbrother had been stabbed in the basement.
He then went downstairs and saw all the blood on his stepbrother.
Shortly afterward, he testified, a man — whom he later found out was Robert Mills — came toward his stepbrother and yelled at him, accusing him of having stabbed his friend. He then left the house.
Police showed up, as well as an ambulance, and his stepbrother was taken out of the house on a stretcher.
While the man said he didn’t see what happened, he heard and saw the video that was circulated on social media.
The video was played in court. It shows a chaotic scene in which a large group of teenagers rush to the basement, where a brawl had broken out. Loud screams and shouting could be heard.
The victim’s mother, who took the stand late Thursday afternoon, said she and her husband were on vacation in Florida at the time of the incident. However, they were in contact with their sons throughout the night and advised them to call police.
When she got word that her son had been stabbed, they rushed home.
She said her son was in the intensive care unit at the hospital after undergoing emergency surgery. He was released after a week.
She said police would not allow them back into their house for several days while they completed their investigation.
Later, she said, she tried to find out what happened and, using her Facebook account, made a plea for anyone who knew anything about what happened to come forward.
“A hundred different people messaged me,” she said.
She forwarded the ones she felt were pertinent to police.
When asked about the Jamie Oliver knife that was believed to be the weapon used to stab her son, the woman said she owned one, but having checked on it when she got home, hers was untouched.
The trial continues Friday. It’s expected to last about two weeks.
Meanwhile, Robert Mills, 23, has pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon (brass knuckles), possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and three counts of breaching court orders in connection with the incident.
His sentencing hearing is set for April 28.
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