According to Coffee or Die
Too many drinks and a Wyoming snowstorm will make anyone reconsider driving home from the strip club. It was just after midnight when John Knospler Jr. was jolted awake in the driver’s seat by what sounded like someone trying to get into his car. The former Recon Marine-turned-MARSOC operator and Iraq War veteran reacted to the threat by turning the car on and attempting to get out of dodge.
But the snow was too slick, and the tires couldn’t grip the surface of the strip club parking lot enough to drive forward. Seven feet later, he slid to a stop. That’s when his window shattered as the assailant tried to punch his way in. Knospler drew his pistol. The attacker grabbed it. The report of the pistol echoed through the cold night air, and a single round of .45 ACP impacted flesh.
The attacker stumbled back and collapsed, where he would eventually bleed out. His maroon blood stained the fresh white snow by the time EMS arrived.
That’s what Knospler says happened, anyway. Prosecutors disagreed, and a jury convicted him in the second-degree murder of 24-year-old unarmed local James “Kade” Baldwin. Knospler is now serving up to 50 years in a medium-security Wyoming prison, and his last chance to argue for his freedom is only days away.
No one disputes that Knospler shot and killed Baldwin in the parking lot of Racks Gentlemen’s Club on Oct. 4, 2013. But Knospler and his supporters think it was a legitimate act of self-defense. They also argue that an aggressive prosecutor may have presented false evidence, and their first defense lawyer asked the wrong questions.
A preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 11 in Casper will consider these new allegations and determine whether a new trial may proceed later this year.
“I was attacked by a violent felon who threatened my life,” Knospler says from prison. “That’s at the heart of the case. Everything you hear before and after is an attempt to villainize me.”
That’s what Knospler says happened, anyway. Prosecutors disagreed, and a jury convicted him in the second-degree murder of 24-year-old unarmed local James “Kade” Baldwin. Knospler is now serving up to 50 years in a medium-security Wyoming prison, and his last chance to argue for his freedom is only days away.
No one disputes that Knospler shot and killed Baldwin in the parking lot of Racks Gentlemen’s Club on Oct. 4, 2013. But Knospler and his supporters think it was a legitimate act of self-defense. They also argue that an aggressive prosecutor may have presented false evidence, and their first defense lawyer asked the wrong questions.
A preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 11 in Casper will consider these new allegations and determine whether a new trial may proceed later this year.
“I was attacked by a violent felon who threatened my life,” Knospler says from prison. “That’s at the heart of the case. Everything you hear before and after is an attempt to villainize me.”