Self-Defense or Intentional Homicide? Jurors Will Need to Decide

Closing arguments are happening now in the homicide trial for Sean Forester-Hoare, 30, the Wind Point man charged with killing 21-year-old Jonathan Kwiatkowski on April 4, 2011. 

The two neighbors got into a fight about Kwiatkowski's driving in the early morning hours of April 4, 2011, and the Kwiatkowski family joined in the altercation in the driveway. During the fight, Forester-Hoare pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed Jonathan Kwiatkowski. 

In his trial this week, Forester-Hoare is claiming self-defense. 

Forester-Hoare took the stand on Thursday, according to a story in The Journal Times, and he testified that he had been outside taking cut-up cardboard to the curb, when Kwiatkowski almost hit him with his car.

“Tim punched me in the back of the head,” Forester-Hoare said. “It was hard enough to knock me to the ground.”

They wrestled, Forester-Hoare said. He was hit when he tried to get up, there were blows from all angles, and his shirt was pulled over his head so he could not see. He said he remembered his boot knife and struck out with it.

From The Journal Times

The Journal Times also reported that Forester-Hoare said he felt "sick" when he heard Kwiatkowski had died, but that he had been terrified that night, and said "I had to do something to get out of that pile."

Tim Kwiatkowski, Jonathan's father, testified earlier this week about how the family got involved in the fight, in a story from The Journal Times. Lori Kwiatkowski, Jonathan's mother, and law enforcement and rescue personnel testified about .