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| Matthew Starkweather |
OFF THE WIRE
Written byTrace Christenson
The Enquirer
battlecreekenquirer.com
The wife of Lee Taylor saw her husband stumble into a pool table at a motorcycle club on New Year’s Day and fall to the floor.
“Matt was hitting him after he hit the pool table and hit the ground,” Lynette Taylor said. “He went to the ground and Matt was beating on him. He was hitting him in the face with his fist.”
Taylor was the first witness on the second day of testimony in the preliminary examination in Calhoun County District Court of Matthew Starkweather. The 32-year-old Battle Creek man is charged with killing Lee Taylor, 45, on Jan. 1 at the Iron Coffin Motorcycle Club, 15 Gilbert St.
Taylor told Calhoun County Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Kabot that she and her husband had taken another man, named Fritz, to the club from a bar after celebrating the new year.
She said Lee Taylor had just taken the other man, who was intoxicated, to a back room where there was a bed.
Moments later she saw her husband.
“The next thing I see my husband comes stumbling out of the doorway,” Taylor said.
Moments later she said another man, John Lindahl, 54, of Kalamzoo, known as Rags, told Taylor and several other people they had to leave the club.
“He said everyone needs to get out,” she told defense attorney J. Thomas Schaeffer during cross examination.
She said after the people left the only ones inside were her husband, Starkweather, Lindahl, the intoxicated man and a fourth person, Mario Baroso, called Paco.
Lindahl also is charged in the homicide. He is awaiting a preliminary examination.
Taylor told Judge Frank Line that she and several others waited outside for about 30 minutes and then she began walking home because her husband had the keys to their vehicle.
Friends picked her up and they returned to the club and waited outside for another 2 ½ hours, Taylor said. Police arrived about 6 a.m., 20 minutes after Lindahl and Paco walked out of the club and left in separate vehicles.
When police arrived, Sgt. Brad Palmer said investigators found Lee Taylor dead on the floor. He was pronounced dead at the scene about 6:07 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
In a statement to police, Starkweather said he was attacked by Taylor, stabbed in the neck, fought for his life and struck Taylor with an asp while Taylor was on his back.
Detective Aaron Smith testified he interviewed Starkweather, who said Taylor, a former member of the club who was then president of the Jackson chapter of the Iron Coffins, pushed his way into the club with Fritz and then ordered Starkweather to go to the car and bring in guitars owned by Fritz.
Starkweather told the detective he was angered by the way Taylor was treating him. The men already had bad feelings because Taylor owed Starkweather $2,500, Smith said.
Starkweather told the detective he and Taylor fought, then talked, and then fought again. Starkweather said Taylor came at him with a knife taken from his belt buckle and the asp and was on Starkweather’s back on the ground.
Starkweather said he then realized he was bleeding and was worried, Smith said.
“The defendant said he grabbed the baton and swung behind him to get Leroy (Taylor) off him. He felt Leroy go limp. Mr. Starkweather got up and Mr. Taylor rolled off him.”
Starkweather told Smith he tried to revive Taylor, but was unsuccessful and called 911.
Testimony in the case is scheduled to continue March 14.
