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New Hampshire Union Leader MANCHESTER — A city man accused of repeatedly stabbing a man in an incident more than a year ago on Grove Street was acquitted of first-degree assault on Wednesday after a two-day jury trial.
Michael Tyrance, of 30 Greenview Drive, Apt. 5, originally was indicted by a Hillsborough County Superior Court, Northern District grand jury on charges of attempted murder, first-degree assault and being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon. Defense attorney Rusty Chadwick said that just before, trial prosecutors dropped the attempted murder charge, a special felony which carried a life sentence.
Only evidence of the first-degree assault was presented to the jury, leaving the decision on the felon in possession of a deadly weapon charge to the judge, Chadwick explained. When the jury found Tyrance not guilty on the assault charge, the judge found him not guilty on the deadly weapon possession as well, Chadwick said. Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Andrew Ouellette, who prosecuted the case, was in a meeting Thursday and unavailable for comment.
Chadwick said Tyrance was a “scapegoat” and a “convenient stranger” who happened on the stabbing on May 7, 2014, near Beech and Green streets and tried to put a stop to it. Victim Michael Giles, 38, was stabbed multiple times in the torso and, according to indictments in the case, suffered severe, permanent or protracted loss of or impairment to the health or the function of any parts of his body.
Charges against co-defendant Christopher Martinez, 21, of 199 Wilson St., second floor, were dropped, according to Chadwick. The case against Brian Crawford, 41, of 225 Grove St., charged with a special felony charge of criminal solicitation of murder, which on conviction carries a 15- to 30-year prison term, is pending. Crawford is accused of handing the other two men knives with orders to stab and/or kill Giles.
Crawford also was indicted on a charge of falsifying physical evidence for — and acting in concert with Martinez — allegedly dropping a knife into a storm drain and for being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon, having been previously convicted on drug charges.
Police learned of the stabbing when they were called to the Elliot Hospital emergency room, where Giles was being treated. Giles was attacked by a group of unknown men near Beech and Green streets, police said in a news release which, at that time, did not identify Giles. Giles suffered repeated stab wounds to the torso and face, severe enough to require surgery, according to police.
Chadwick said Tyrance spoke to police, and his version of what happened never varied.“The victim came in and couldn't keep his story straight,” Chadwick said. “My client kept trying to tell them (police) he was there and just trying to help people.”Six years ago, Tyrance was the victim of a brutal beating in a Hecker Street apartment. Keyonn Brown, 28, of Dorchester, Mass., was accused of punching and kicking Tyrance, breaking a chair over his head and tossing him down a stairwell.
Brown told detectives he attacked Tyrance after receiving a telephone call that morning from his ex-girlfriend's daughter who, he said, told him she thought her mother was being raped. Brown's former girlfriend tried several times to stop the beating, police said. Tyrance suffered a broken orbital bone, a deep cut to his right eyebrow that exposed his skull and had massive swelling to his face and head. Emergency workers feared he had bleeding in the brain, according to court records.