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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Blogs Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Multimedia Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Road Cams Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend February 13, 2007 Murder trial jury deliberation starts Defendant in stabbing case says he was in the wrong place at the wrong time By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune Jury deliberations begin today in the trial of Luis Alberto Salas-Juarez, a Hispanic man accused of a racially motivated murder. His involvement in a fight with seven men smacked of a setup, Salas told police shortly after the Aug. 13 stabbing of 23-year-old Mark Edwin Lunsford of Butte Falls. A white man who asked him to come "meet some racist people" most likely knew Lunsford and his friends, Salas told police in a videotaped interview played Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court. Salas realized something was wrong because he was the only Mexican in Medford's Theater Alley surrounded by white people. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Salas, 23, told Medford Police Detective Terry Newell. "How the hell did they think I stabbed him ... I was never even close to him." The Medford resident also denied punching any of the men despite a smear of blood on his shoulder later identified through DNA analysis as belonging to one of Lunsford's friends, 25-year-old Jason Ricks. Lunsford's blood was not found on any of Salas' clothing. Advertisement Nor was blood found on the clothing of 26-year-old Timothy Tracy Russell, later identified as the passerby who told Salas of the racist crowd up ahead. Russell testified last week to following Salas into the fracas and admitted to pulling a knife on the group of men, none of whom he knew. Knocked to the ground and kicked, he landed no blows with the weapon, Russell said. Taken under a search warrant at his Medford home, Russell's knife bore no blood. Police never found the knife believed to be the murder weapon but talked to a shopkeeper who said he sold Salas a folding blade emblazoned with a Mexican flag. With days to clean up his own knife, Russell, Salas' defense attorneys argued, is the true killer. Russell wouldn't talk to police without an attorney and didn't give his first statement until about nine days after the stabbing. "If you're a bettin' man, Russell did it," Salas' defense attorney Joseph Maier told the jury. "I think he did it on accident." While Maier's co-counsel, Rebecca Rosenstein, insinuated last week that racism motivated Lunsford's friends to match up their stories to implicate Salas, Maier argued on Monday that eyewitnesses just confused the Hispanic man wearing a white shirt with the white man wearing a black shirt. "They're getting the races mixed up," he said. However, a second victim, 23-year-old Lawrence Matthew Crowley, immediately identified Salas from a lineup as the man who bumped up against Lunsford, who stepped away with a stab wound, before coming after him with a knife. Crowley, half Argentinian, denied any racial motives. It demeaned Crowley to suggest he falsely accused a fellow Hispanic man when a knife came inches from his stomach, prosecutor David Hoppe told the jury. Hoppe also urged jurors to look at Russell sitting in the courtroom's front row next to Lunsford's parents and consider the "temerity" a true killer would possess in that situation. Why would Lunsford's younger brother, Tommy, Hoppe asked, let the real killer go free? Tommy Lunsford, 22, also testified last week to seeing Salas bump up against his brother, although he never saw a knife. "He's not going to come here today and dishonor his brother's memory by falsely accusing an innocent man," Hoppe told the jury. Salas had no answer when police asked why Ricks and Tommy Lunsford chased him to 10th and Fir streets if he hadn't attacked Mark Lunsford. "They can say whatever," Salas said when confronted with the witnesses' statements. Jurors must return a unanimous verdict to convict Salas of murder. Ten or more must agree on the attempted murder of Crowley. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] . Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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