Man in court to be sentenced for a stabbing threatens victim in front of judge, corrections officers

A man is facing a new charge of witness intimidation after he started screaming in court at the victim he’d been found guilty of stabbing.

Michael L. Backemeyer, 40, reportedly had to be restrained while he shouted and cursed at the man he had stabbed and said “I’m going to kick your ass,” according to court documents. The confrontation was witnessed by a full courtroom that included attorneys, a judge and corrections officers.

Backemeyer was in court to be sentenced on his conviction for first-degree assault. During that incident in December 2016 he got in a scuffle with an employee at the Peking North restaurant after he brought his own beer to the bar and was told to leave. The employee was stabbed in the ear and also had cuts on his face, neck and shoulder.

Backemeyer, who has previous convictions for assault in Salt Lake City and robbery in Nebraska, was sentenced to 164 months in prison for the assault. He’s being held in the Spokane County Jail on $50,000 bond on the witness intimidation charge.