One of the most memorable interviews I’ve ever done with a witness. Mr. Collier’s eyes were swollen shut from the beating he took in the fight. He was missing teeth and spitting blood, and he talked to me inside his all-but-empty trailer, which had no running water or heat. He became upset and started crying, and I recall him saying to me, “I used to be a good-looking dude,” as he talked about the melee and pulled out a family photo album to show me. Meanwhile, random people were milling around outside the trailer and up and down the street. I actually texted another reporter to drive by and check on me.
Stabbing melee leaves city man dead
Oct. 5, 2010
A melee involving a knife, a tire iron and a meat hook that resulted in the stabbing death of a Springfield man Monday night may have stemmed from an earlier fight at a mobile home down the block, according to a man who lives there.
Neighbors and the Sangamon County coroner identified the victim as Jacob Folder, 25. He was pronounced dead at 12:07 a.m. Tuesday while in surgery at St. John’s Hospital. An autopsy indicated the cause of death was a stab wound to the upper body.
In all, there were five victims, according to Sangamon County sheriff’s investigators.
The fight, which happened at a house in the 100 block of South Livingston Street, came to the attention of police about 10:30 p.m., when a Springfield police officer tried to pull over a speeding car. The driver at first would not stop. When he did, he told the officer he was on his way to the hospital with Folder, who’d been stabbed and needed medical attention.
The other victims, who are in their late 30s and early 40s, went to hospitals by ambulance and in private vehicles. Their conditions were not available Tuesday evening, although authorities said one had been treated and released. Not all of them were stabbed.
No details were available about what prompted the melee, how many attackers were involved or the nature of all the victims’ injuries.
Gary Collier, 39, who said he moved into a trailer on Livingston after being released from prison in August, told The State Journal-Register the attack probably stemmed from an earlier dispute at his home in which he, too, was attacked. Collier suffered a broken bone around his eye, broken ribs and cuts on his face.
He said Folder and another man showed up at his home to drink beer with him after he got off work Monday night. However, the two men began fighting with each other, so Collier told them to leave, which they did.
Collier said he went to sleep on his couch and was awakened later when someone burst through the front door. He said the intruders rushed into the trailer, possibly hoping to rob him, and flung a chunk of concrete block at his face while he was still lying on the couch. He said they also beat him with a flashlight and a floor fan.
Collier said he got up and ran down the street to the house of some friends, where Folder was staying, “to get backup,” but the people there began beating him, too. He then ran to a nearby gas station to call a relative to take him to the hospital.
Collier said he did not know what happened at the friends’ house after he left. He later learned about the fatal stabbing.
“A man’s life was lost, and he was my friend,” Collier said.
No arrests had been made as of Tuesday afternoon. Sheriff’s investigators interviewed “persons of interest” overnight, according to Chief Deputy Jack Campbell. Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact the sheriff’s detective bureau at 753-6840.