An Old Town stabbing case ended in defeat for Multnomah County prosecutors once jurors learned the wounded man had been videoed uttering a racist slur in the struggle’s aftermath.

Before his acquittal , Gary Edwards was charged with second-degree assault for knifing a stranger on Northwest 5th Avenue near the Union Station MAX stop on the morning hours of July 7.

The charge carried a Measure 11 sentence of five years and 10 months in state prison.

But while Edwards admitted to the stabbing on the witness stand, he said it was self defense based on the other man’s aggression. Edwards testified that Gregory Howard Jr. yelled the racist slur as soon as he saw him. Howard denied that.

Transit cameras showed Edwards, a fixed-blade knife clasped at his side, approaching Howard from behin

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