New details have emerged in the stabbing that seriously injured a party-goer on Thane Road last month, after a Juneau grand jury indicted the 37-year-old suspect.
Joshua Levi Brown was charged with five separate counts: two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault and one count of third-degree assault. He is scheduled to be arraigned later in Juneau Superior Court.
The charging document by Assistant District Attorney Angie Kemp offers new details of the stabbing, which even the victim, Monte Nix, told the Empire he does not recall.
Witnesses at the bonfire were able to fill in some of the gaps, including a series of confrontations between Nix and Brown, although none reportedly saw the actual stabbing, according to the information in the charging document.
The Juneau Police Department had received a 911 call at about 11:15 p.m. April 22 reporting the stabbing, which happened near parked vehicles and the roadway, in an area above the beach where the party-goers had a bonfire.
Several witnesses reported Nix and Brown in an altercation that night, with Brown fleeing the scene of the bonfire on Thane Road in a red Subaru hatchback.
One man told JPD officers that Brown, whom he knew as Charlie LNU, had asked Nix to leave because he was drunk, belligerent and was throwing sand; he did not see the subsequent fight. Another witness, a woman, told officers that Nix was drunk and got into a fistfight with Brown, whom she identified as Charlie Hussle or Alex. She said the fight was broken up and Nix began leaving, but that Brown followed him up the road and was the “aggressor in that situation.” She said the two men went behind some vehicles and “then all hell broke loose.”
A third witness, Jacob Mulloy, told the officers that Nix and Brown had already had problems prior to the bonfire, at an April 20 event that had been organized by Brown. After the fight by the bonfire, Nix had gone up to the parking lot when Brown came up to him and punched him in the face, telling him to leave, the witness said.
Mulloy stepped between the two men, but then Brown tried to punch Nix again. According to Mulloy, Nix punched Brown, knocking his hat off, and then Brown hit Nix in the head and then in the stomach. At that point, Nix backed away and walked behind some cars. Mulloy apparently did not see the stabbing but heard “the sound of a faucet opening up,” turning on his phone flashlight to see blood pouring out.
Brown took off and “peeled out,” Mulloy told the police.
[Police ID, seek stabbing suspect from Thane beach party]
Nix was interviewed at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and told officers he does not remember anything that happened; others at the party told him he had been stabbed three times with a box cutter.
A nurse who treated Nix told officers he had extensive blood loss from stab wounds that went through his stomach, pancreas and spleen; the main artery to the liver also was lacerated. Physicians in Juneau had been unable to stop the bleeding and Nix was sent to Seattle, where part of his pancreas and his spleen were removed.
In the initial complaint, which was filed April 28 — when Brown was still being sought — ADA Kemp wrote that he was reported to have left Juneau and was planning on fleeing the state. Brown had a parole warrant for his arrest from Oregon for an original charge of third-degree robbery, and also had a warrant from Washington for smuggling marijuana; he also had multiple convictions in Oregon and California that included robbery, assault and exhibiting a firearm.
JPD had issued a $20,000 arrest warrant for Brown, also known as Charlie Hustle or Charlie Brown and as Alex Douglas Dornbeirer, and officers had been attempting to locate him without success.
The department received a tip that he was at a residence in the 6500 block of Glacier Highway on May 4 and reportedly arrested him without incident. Brown is being held on $20,000 bail at Lemon Creek Correctional Center.
• Contact reporter Liz Kellar at 523-2246 or liz.kellar@juneauempire.com.
