Stabbing victim reportedly brandished gun

Stabbing victim Benjamin Floriani was carrying a gun the night he was killed at a large party in west Santa Rosa, attorneys said in court Friday.

During a court hearing, four young men pleaded not guilty to charges related to the Dec. 15 stabbing death of the 21-year-old Analy High School graduate.

Sonoma County residents Donald Blake Bittner, 19, Matthew Timothy O'Day, 19, and Alex Paul Hopper, 20, are charged with murder. Noah Minuskin, 19, is charged as an accessory to murder.

Three other young men, also former Analy students, Efran Vasquez, 22, Aniano Vasquez, 21, and Martin Ponzo, 20, were recovering from stab wounds suffered in what's been described as a brawl in a town house near Ninth Street.

During and after the hearing, two defense attorneys -- citing police reports they've been given in preparation for the defense of their clients -- said Floriani was seen brandishing a handgun before he was slain.

Santa Rosa police have refused to describe what led to the fight. A police spokeswoman didn't return a call seeking comment Friday.

Minuskin's attorney, Jamie Thistle-thwaite, said a friend of Floriani's "reluctantly" told police detectives that Floriani was carrying a gun that night. Prosecutors allege Minuskin drove the other defendants away from the chaotic stabbing scene.

Bittner's attorney, L. Stephen Turer, said Floriani's friends aren't being cooperative with police about the gun's whereabouts.

"Of the reports I've seen so far," he said, "there appears to be a significant amount of evidence that the alleged victim had a gun and that there was a gun involved in this altercation."

He asked prosecutor Chuck Arden if detectives were "looking for the gun everybody saw that night." Arden didn't answer the question in court.

Assistant District Attorney Christine Cook also wouldn't specifically address questions about whether Floriani had a gun or what led to the fight.

"The facts about the case . . . will come out in court at the appropriate time," she said, citing ethical concerns about speaking about a case outside of court.

Turer raised questions of a self-defense argument for the defendants if Floriani was "waving a gun around." He criticized the police investigation and what he characterized as a rush to charge the defendants with murder before all the facts are known.

"A friend of (Floriani) said he had a gun and was showing it to people earlier in the evening," Turer said. "Others were saying, 'He has a gun, there's a gun,' " before the altercation.

"If that guy had a gun, that paints a very different picture," he said. "Yet his friends are obviously covering it up, and police haven't done anything about it."

In earlier interviews, police Sgt. Lisa Banayat refused to discuss who was armed, saying detectives were still interviewing potential witnesses. She didn't respond to a phone call Friday about whether Floriani was armed.

O'Day is a younger brother of Patrick O'Day, a Marine who in 2003 became the first Sonoma County serviceman to die in the Iraq War. Another brother, Rory, 18, initially was arrested, but has not been charged in the case.

Floriani was studying business at San Francisco State University and had made the dean's list last year.

He and defendants Hopper and Bittner were on probation at the time of the slaying. Floriani was convicted after pleading no contest in 2005 to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge. He was ordered to serve four days in jail and serve three years of probation, which was to end in May 2008. He also was convicted of driving on a suspended license after an August 2005 arrest. He pleaded no contest to that charge, and a marijuana possession charge was dismissed.

In 2006, another misdemeanor marijuana possession charge was dismissed after he showed prosecutors proof of attending 20 Narcotics Anonymous meetings, court records show.

All four defendants remain in custody at Sonoma County Jail.

Judge Ken Gnoss set a Jan. 7 hearing for an update on additional investigative information to be handed over to the defense and to set a preliminary hearing date.

Staff Writer Lori A. Carter can be reached at 568-5312 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.