PORT ANGELES — Jury selection, opening arguments and testimony began Monday in Clallam County Superior Court for the trial of Brian Lee Lester, who has pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree attempted murder charges related to an incident earlier this year.
According to a Port Angeles Police Department probable cause report, Lester, 39, allegedly approached a black Kia Rio parked at the 9/11 Memorial Water Park on Francis Street in which his former long-term partner Dorothy Hunt-Wood and his cousin Michael Lynch were sleeping on the morning of March 27.
Lester allegedly reached through the driver’s side window and began punching Lynch in the face. Lynch got out of the vehicle and began fighting. When Lynch got back in the vehicle and attempted to drive away, Lester allegedly shot at it.
Had the bullet not struck a pillar inside the vehicle, it likely would have hit Lynch in the upper torso, according to the report.
In his opening remarks, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Roberson said Lester had tracked down Hunt-Wood, with whom he shares a daughter, and Lynch to the park “in a fit of jealously and rage because he believed something was going on between the two of them.”
Defense attorney Charles Commeree framed the case differently. While acknowledging the complicated dynamic among the three parties, he said the confrontation at the park was about the disputed ownership of the Kia.
Commeree suggested Lester acted in self-defense because Lynch attempted to run him over three times in the parking lot.
He shot at the vehicle, “not to kill, but to stop the assault,” he said.
In his testimony, Lynch described events at the park, saying he was not trying to run Lester over, but to create a diversion.
In the first count against Lynch, he is charged with attempted premeditated first-degree murder with intent to kill Lynch, along with second-degree murder without premeditation.
Both are Class A felonies.
Lester also faces a second count of felony harassment.
He is being held in the Clallam County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
Nine men and five women — 12 jurors and two alternates — were selected from a pool of 75 potential jurors, a higher-than-usual response rate to a summons, said Superior Court Judge Brent Basden, who is presiding.
The trial resumes today at 9 a.m.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
