Man convicted in stabbing
A Spokane Valley man faces up to a dozen years in prison in what could almost be described as a drive-by stabbing.
Testimony in a non-jury trial this week indicated Denis Fedorovich Ekkert, 20, got out of a car just long enough to stab another young man in the stomach before speeding away on a Sunday evening last April.
Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen on Wedensday convicted Ekkert of first-degree assault, as charged, rejecting Ekkert’s claims that he wasn’t properly advised of his constitutional rights because a police officer didn’t use a Russian interpreter.
Eitzen said she didn’t find it credible when Ekkert claimed Officer Michele Madsen ignored repeated requests for an interpreter. Madsen testified that she had no difficulty communicating with Ekkert at length in English.
A juvenile probation officer testified that Ekkert translated for his Russian-speaking father when the three of them had conversations regarding an earlier Juvenile Court case of Ekkert’s.
Ekkert immigrated from Kazakhstan six years ago. He testified through an interpreter at trial, as did another Russian speaker who coincidentally witnessed the April 18 stabbing in front of victim David T. Felten’s home on East Longfellow, less than a block off Division.
Mikhail Vorontsov said he happened to be in the neighborhood with his children, who were selling school candy door to door. Vorontsov said he saw people get out of two cars. A man from one car either pushed or punched a man from the second car, Vorontsov said. The man from the second car responded with a similar motion – that’s presumably when Felton was stabbed – and people from the second car called out in Russian, “Come on, come on, faster. Hurry up.”
Then, Vorontsov said, “They got back in the car and drove away … very fast.”
People who live in the area gave similar reports of the 7:50 p.m. incident, but they weren’t able to understand the Russian speech.
Police soon found a car of the same description at Liberty Park, with Ekkert and two friends in it. Ekkert was taken to Felten’s hospital room, where Felten identified Ekkert as his attacker.
The incident occurred five days after a charge of second-degree robbery against Ekkert was dismissed during a non-jury trial. Sheriff’s officers had reported Ekkert and three other suspects in the robbery were identified from a surveillance video as well by a clerk who was struck in the chest and threatened.
The Spokane Valley robbery occurred exactly one year before the stabbing.
After being granted immunity, Ekkert’s friend Semen Kutsar testified in English that he was driving one of the cars involved in the stabbing. He said he, Ekkert and another friend were driving home from an evening church service when someone in another car “showed us the middle finger.”
Kutsar said he followed the car to “find out what was going on, why they showed us the middle finger.”
Felten, who has recovered from his wound, said Kutsar’s car tailgated his as he drove south on Division from Francis. Then Kutsar’s car pulled up beside his, and people in Kutsar’s car shouted obscenities, Felten said.
Kutsar said Ekkert later told him he stabbed Felten after being shoved by Felten.
Deputy Prosecutor Steve Garvin said Ekkert faces a standard range of 93/4 to 121/4 years in prison when Eitzen sentences him on Jan. 5.