A man on trial for stabbing a 22-year-old to death outside an Anaheim bar had interjected himself into the middle of a confrontation that was cooling down between two groups, a prosecutor told jurors on Tuesday, March 19.
Armando Urbina, a 28-year-old resident of an unincorporated area near Anaheim, is facing a murder charge for the Oct. 30, 2020, killing of Cody Christopher Stewart, 22, in a parking lot in the 1700 block of Euclid Street.
A prosecutor, during Tuesday’s opening statements in a Santa Ana courtroom, told an Orange County Superior Court jury that Urbina got into the middle of a confrontation that Stewart and his friends were having with another group that was already calming down.
A fight between Urbina and Stewart ensued, Deputy District Attorney Jeff Moore told jurors, and Stewart was stabbed multiple times, including fatally into the chest and heart.
“What the defendant did, and his reaction to what happened, was wholly unreasonable,” Moore said.
Urbina’s attorney, Cameron Talley, opted not to give an opening statement, reserving the right to do so later in the proceedings.
The prosecutor raised the question for jurors about whether the killing was murder or self-defense.
That evening, Stewart and his friends began drinking at Harvey’s Sports Bar before an electrical issue at the tavern led them to move to the nearby Las Brisas Mexican Restaurant. Urbina was also at both the bar and the restaurant, the prosecutor said, but didn’t appear to have interacted with Stewart and his friends in them.
When the restaurant closed at 2 a.m., the patrons spilled into the parking lot shared by the restaurant and the bar. According to the prosecutor, as Stewart and his friends walked to their car another group overheard them talking about San Francisco and gay people and took offense.
Stewart’s group and the other gathering trash-talked and postured, the prosecutor said. As tempers cooled, the prosecutor said, Urbina walked up and ordered the groups to leave.
Stewart either pushed or knocked Urbina to the ground, the prosecutor said. Urbina got up and is accused of starting to fight Stewart. At some point, the prosecutor said, Urbina allegedly pulled out a knife and began stabbing Stewart.
Stewart’s friends started to take him to a hospital but pulled their car over a short distance away and called 911. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Urbina left, but witnesses provided police with his license-plate number and he was arrested hours later on his way to work.
Urbina told officers, the prosecutor said, he carried the knife for self-defense, having had issues with people at bars previously and having been “jumped” at least once.
There is no indication that Stewart or Urbina knew each other prior to the fight.
Source: Orange County Register
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