Filed Wednesday, September 10, 2025 by Vancouver Defenders
Daniel Mellen won an acquittal on September 3, 2025, for a client charged with assault in the first degree with a deadly weapon enhancement.
Mellen was assisted by Sedi Caine during the two-day trial in Clark County Superior Court.
Their client was accused of stabbing his roommate’s brother in the stomach with a pocketknife, but Mellen successfully argued that the client was acting in self-defense after he was jumped by his roommate and the alleged victim.
The alleged victim was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for a stab wound and released the next day.
First-degree assault with a deadly weapon enhancement, a class A felony, has a standard sentencing range of approximately 9 to 12 years in prison for first-time offenders.
The fight was Nov. 2, 2020, at a Brush Prairie apartment complex. There were a few reasons why it took so long for the case to go to trial. Prosecutors dismissed the case without prejudice in late 2021 because a key witness was on active duty in the military and unable to testify. Charges were refiled nearly a year later, after the witness returned from duty. The client initially had court-appointed counsel but decided to hire Mellen in late 2024.
At trial, Mellen focused heavily on a few facts: just before the stabbing, the client yelled "Y'all are jumping me?" (which showed that he truly believed he was being jumped, even if that wasn't the other parties' intent); an unexplained laceration on the alleged victim's right hand (even though he claimed he had not touched anyone during the fight); and the client only stabbed the alleged victim once before fleeing (which showed that he was primarily interested in getting away, not in hurting the other parties).
Mellen also told jurors that the defendant lacked an alternative way to end the fight, because by all accounts he was truly getting his butt kicked even before the roommate's brother joined the fight.
The jury deliberated about two and a half hours before telling the judge they were deadlocked 11 to 1. The judge told them to continue deliberating to see if they could reach a unanimous decision, and roughly a half-hour later they said they had a verdict.
After the not-guilty verdict was read and court was adjourned, a member of the jury told attorneys that the person who was the 1 in the 11-1 split just needed more time to talk about who threw the initial punch.
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