Murder trial goes to jury

EVERETT — Chris Chandler borrowed his dad’s tennis shoes for his Halloween costume. He and his friends dressed up like members of Slipknot, a heavy metal band.

Bryce Fortier borrowed his father’s duster jacket. He went to the party as a pirate, reminiscent of Capt. Jack Sparrow.

On Friday, the dads of both young men sat in opposite corners of a Sno­homish County courtroom.

One man’s son is dead. The other is on trial for murder.

A Snohomish County jury on Friday began deliberations after hearing two weeks of testimony. Jurors are being asked to decide if Fortier, 23, committed murder or acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Chandler, 18.

Chandler, of Kirkland, was shot once in the chest during an apparent struggle with Fortier at a Halloween party in 2007 in the Mill Creek area. He died, still wearing his dad’s shoes, alongside the road while his friends tried to save him.

Fortier is charged with ­second-degree murder with a deadly weapon.

Fortier testified Thursday he shot Chandler out of fear for his life. He said he was being punched, kicked and stomped for a second time that night and believed his only option was to pull the trigger.

“I get this cold rush of panic. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, they’re not going to stop,’ ” Fortier said. “I remember the gun in my hand. I pointed it at the person on top of me and fired. The person fell back.”

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Sherry King said Fortier, then a student at Central Washington University, brought a loaded semiautomatic gun to an underage drinking party. He was acting as an “enforcer” when fights broke out in the street as the party was wrapping up. She accused Fortier of shooting Chandler out of retaliation for being assaulted earlier in the night.

“The defendant got beat up. He didn’t like it. He was embarrassed by it,” King said. “He’s a big guy. He was going to be in charge.”

Fortier had been assaulted but the fight had ended, she said. He was standing with his friends and asking them to point out who beat him up. He pulled the gun hidden under his white, ruffled shirt, stepped into the road and pointed the loaded gun at Chandler, King told jurors.

He became the aggressor and Chandler was the one acting in self-defense when he tried to wrestle the gun away from Fortier, she said.

“You don’t get to use self-defense later when the assault is over,” King told jurors. “It was too late to claim self-defense.”

Defense attorney Pete Mazzone told the jury that testimony and evidence doesn’t support King’s theory. Fortier was being beaten to a pulp and felt his life was in danger.

The law gives him the right to stand his ground and not retreat, he said.

Mazzone told jurors the evidence shows that Fortier was being assaulted when he fired the gun. The Everett lawyer at one point lay down on the courtroom floor to demonstrate the location of bullet wounds on Chandler, something he said proved that his client shot with his attacker literally on top of him.

Mazzone also pointed to a projector screen filled with the picture of Fortier taken by detectives after the shooting. The defendant’s face was bloody and his eye was swollen.

“If you find yourself in a situation that you have to defend yourself and use deadly force, do you think the law should understand?” Mazzone asked. “Yes it does. Oh, yes it does.”

The Everett lawyer attacked the testimony of a number of prosecution witnesses, many young men with connections to Juanita High School.

They were all fighting that night, hitting people in the head with bottles and looking to hurt people, he said.

“These are a bunch of thugs. This is ‘Lord of the Flies,’ ” Mazzone told jurors.

King argued that Fortier’s story of being assaulted when he shot Chandler wasn’t corroborated by any of the witnesses. She told jurors she thinks he may have convinced himself the shooting was justifiable to be able to live with the truth that he killed an unarmed, 18-year-old kid.

“If you tell yourself something enough times, maybe you start to believe it,” she said.

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.