Testimony opened Tuesday in the attempted murder trial of a Bay area disc jockey accused of stabbing two Harrah's Lake Tahoe security guards in the neck as they escorted him out of a casino nightclub nearly a year ago.
A jury of seven men and six women, including an alternate, was seated to hear the charges against Justin Ready, 25, who has been in Douglas County Jail on $200,000 bail since his arrest last November.
The jury heard from Refugio Martinez also known as DJ(R) Styles, who was on stage Nov. 27 when the incident occurred.
"I saw Justin in the front of the stage and went over and shook his hand," Martinez said. "He came up on the stage, and I told him he had to get off the stage. We had just got told by security we couldn't have people coming on stage."
Martinez said he saw security guards telling Ready he had to get off the stage, but he didn't see the man leave.
"I didn't get into a full-on conversation with him, I didn't see anything," Martinez said. "My job is to sit there and play the music, not to get him off the stage."
Ready is expected to testify during the four-day trial.
His lawyer, Dirk Manoukian of Concord, Calif., claims Ready acted in self-defense after the security guards placed him in a chokehold to restrain him.
"He honestly and sincerely believed he was in imminent danger," Manoukian said.
Prosecutor Dina Salvucci counseled the jury "to focus on what you hear from the witnesses during the trial.
"The really great evidence is the two security guards are alive and here to tell you what happened from their perspective," she said.
The guards, David Gontang and Ahmet Albayrha, were taken by Care Flight helicopter for medical treatment in Reno and also are expected to testify.
If convicted of the attempted murder charges, Ready faces up to 40 years in prison.
He also is being tried on charges of two counts of battery with a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm and battery with a deadly weapon.
Ready performed in the Bay area as DJ MC Fader.
The case, before District Judge Michael Gibbons, could go to the jury Thursday or Friday.