Fight night testimony differs

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

During a fight at Independence Point July 4, Tyler Rambo’s gun may have jumped twice in his hand, spitting fire and bullets in the direction of at least one person, narrowly missing him, before spiraling into Lake Coeur d’Alene.

That was part of the two-hour testimony Tuesday at Rambo’s probable cause hearing in which Rambo was bound over to district court to face charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault, both felonies that carry sentences up to life in prison.

Rambo, 18, is accused of firing a .357 magnum revolver at two people in Coeur d’Alene’s City Park around the time of the annual fireworks celebration before being chased down by police who shot Rambo 14 times, resulting in the amputation of both his legs.

Jawaun Anderson of Spokane was at the celebration with his girlfriend, Jazmin Smith, both acquaintances of Rambo’s, when a fight broke out between Rambo and Anderson at Independence Point.

In two hours of testimony, however, the reason for the fight wasn’t revealed, resulting in back and forth exchanges between defense attorney Rick Baughman and Anderson, and later Baughman and Smith.

Anderson, who had smoked two marijuana cigarettes and drank flavored vodka on the Fourth of July, said he did not remember the events leading up to the altercation.

He remembers seeing Rambo walk by when Anderson tapped him on the shoulder. Shortly thereafter a brief slugfest ensued.

“It was a fistfight,” Anderson recalled, but it was short because Smith jumped in, and then the gun was raised from Rambo’s waistline — either from the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt or his pants.

“Somehow we ended up on the ground together,” Anderson said. “I don’t remember how.”

When the gun came out it was pointed directly at Anderson’s face, and Rambo pulled the trigger, Anderson said.

“I got shot at, in the face,” Anderson said. “The flash of the barrel, I saw it in my eyes.”

Immediately, Anderson said, his “homeboy came over and broke up the fight, but after he saw the gun, he ran away.”

Smith’s version was almost identical, except the 20-year-old said she remembers knocking the firearm away from her face first.

Rambo, Smith testified at the Tuesday afternoon hearing, pointed the revolver and she swatted it away. It may have fired one shot then, but Smith conceded to being drunk at the time.

“I am literally 5-0 and 100 pounds,” Smith said. “One or two drinks do it for me, so yes, I was intoxicated.”

She remembered Anderson rejoining the fight before she fell down and cried.

She thought Rambo had shot her boyfriend.

“The gun wasn’t seen in the beginning,” Smith said. “Then, I remember his hand, and the gun going toward my face, very fast, and it was me and Tyler facing each other with tons of people around us and I started screaming, ‘Gun!”

But Baughman didn’t buy it.

It was not the defendant who started the fight, he said. Anderson had tapped Rambo on the shoulder as he walked by, instigating the altercation.

Baughman tried to show that Anderson and Rambo had bad blood because of a fight at an earlier party.

Rambo may have been carrying a gun to defend himself, and not because he was looking to dust Anderson in a public place.

Attempted murder “requires malice or intent to kill,” Baughman said. “What you got here is none of those. It’s a fight initiated by (Anderson).”

Deputy prosecutor Jed Whitaker, however, said Rambo belonged to a gang, had tattooed on his right hand a gang code that meant he had killed someone, and was intentionally carrying a .357 revolver in a public place with intent to do harm.

“Malice can be expressed or implied,” Whitaker said. “This was implied malice.”

Rambo’s next hearing will be an arraignment in First District Court, where he will enter a plea to the charges.