Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- Richard Beck, whom police said was stabbed early Sunday morning, said the fight started over a game of pool.

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Jonathan Gilliam, 21, is charged with attempted murder, among other things.

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Beck, 42, of Wasilla, said, "I don't think he liked the way I play pool."

Jonathan Gilliam, 21, of Palmer was arrested by Palmer police Sunday and charged with assault, attempted murder and tampering with evidence.

Beck said he hadn't cheated the man and saw no reason why losing a game of billiards should call for stabbing someone.

"I guess it ended his world."

Beck said the disagreement with Gilliam, 21, started in Klondike Mike's on South Colony Way, Palmer's main drag. He was going next door to the Palmer Bar when he said Gilliam attacked him with a pocketknife.

Beck figured the fight took place around midnight to 1 a.m., but Palmer dispatch said the 911 call came in at 4:37 a.m. A bartender at the bar said it hadn't happened before 4 a.m. when she got off duty. Last call in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is 5 a.m.

Beck, speaking Tuesday afternoon from his hospital bed at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, said he required surgery for one stab wound in his chest and ribs. He said he didn't know when he would be able to be released.

Meanwhile, Gilliam, with a bruise under his right eye, was in cuffs Tuesday afternoon before Judge William Estelle in the Palmer District Court. He was there on an unrelated May 2007 case for driving without a license.

Normally jailhouse garb and shackles aren't required for traffic offenses, but the alleged stabbing took place less than 60 hours before.

When Estelle learned that Palmer police had jailed Gilliam on more serious charges, he asked to see that court record. His courtroom clerk was not immediately able to find a record of those charges on her computer. The online court database showed no record Tuesday of a case having been filed against Gilliam.

Gilliam is being held on $15,000 bail in the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

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