James Stewart testifies in his own defense about fatal 2024 Joker's Pub shooting

ELYRIA — May 10, 2024, was supposed to be a chance for James Stewart Jr., his brother Mark and their uncle Danny Talmadge to celebrate a birth in the family. The night ended instead with Mark Stewart assaulted and James Stewart charged with murder for shooting and killing another man at Joker's Pub and Grub on Sprague Road in Columbia Township. James Stewart, 42, of Brunswick, has pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense or defense of others to felony charges including murder, felonious assault, illegal possession of a firearm in a liquor permit premises, as well as firearms specifications and misdemeanor charges of assault and using weapons while intoxicated in connection with the events surrounding the fatal shooting of 49-year-old Jason Kleinman of Olmsted Falls that night. James Stewart is free on bond while standing trial. He took the stand Wednesday in his own defense, laying out for a jury in Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Chris Cook's courtroom his calm and composed recollection of the day's events. Defense attorney Michael Stepanik put James and Mark Stewart on the stand after Assistant Prosecutors Daniellela Leigh and Chris Pierre rested their case following the fifth day of testimony. James Stewart hadn't been to Joker's before, and there wasn't any trouble when he, his brother and their uncle visiting them from Florida went there twice that day, capping off eight hours of drinking at two different bars. It wasn't until Kleinman's friend Lewis Wade, who is Black, accused Mark Stewart of using the N-word and threatened to "f--- him up" that James Stewart said things went sideways. "Humongous" and "boisterous" at 6 feet 6 inches tall and more than 350 pounds and surrounded by several other "very large men," Wade allegedly threatened to "beat the f--- outta" Mark Stewart and "beat him to death," James Stewart testified. "That worried me. That alarmed me," James Stewart testified. He went out to his truck and got his gun, a Heckler & Koch VP9 9mm handgun, what he described on the witness stand as "protection because Lewis Wade was making heinous threats to my brother." After more words were exchanged, James Stewart testified that Wade headbutted him, "kept banging into me" and picked up a barstool to hit him. Wade had denied headbutting James Stewart or picking up a stool to hit him in his own testimony. The defense attorney and prosecutors disagreed about whether video evidence showed Wade making physical contact. Prosecutors will get their chance to cross examine James Stewart today. Testifying Wednesday in his brother's defense, Mark Stewart told the jury his memory was bad. "I don't remember a lot of stuff from that night," Mark Stewart testified, one of many times he answered questions from both the prosecution and defense by saying "I don't remember" or "I don't recall." A metal worker from Middleburg Heights, Mark Stewart testified he already had heart problems when he suffered a concussion that night after Kleinman "attacked" him. He admitted he shouldn't have been drinking while taking several of the medications he told hospital workers he was on when he was diagnosed with the concussion. Leigh suggested that negative interactions between his meds and the alcohol could have made him appear intoxicated, confused and unsteady on his feet following the shooting. Mark Stewart testified he never used a racial slur, the N-word as Kleinman and Wade allegedly accused him of doing. James Stewart's reaction to his brother telling him about the encounter with Wade and Kleiman was to have words with Wade, retrieve his legally-owned 9mm handgun from his truck, then exchange words with and throw punches at Wade, according to video and eyewitness testimony. James Stewart tried to punch Wade up to five times, but Wade dodged all the blows. The two separated, James Stewart retreated toward the front of the bar, at which point Kleinman "slugged" Mark Stewart in the head, James Stewart testified. Video evidence showed James Stewart fired three shots from several feet away. One of the bullets hit Kleinman in the head and killed him. Police officers who responded to Joker's that night testified both James and Mark Stewart appeared intoxicated and emotional following the shooting. "I'm 50 years old, I know what a drunk guy looks like," Lorain County Sheriff's Deputy Mark Detrick testified Wednesday when challenged by Stepanik over James Stewart's level of intoxication. Ace's Depot bartender Jenna Rinehart, who testified she had had a "father-daughter" relationship with Kleinman, told the jury that James and Mark Stewart appeared very intoxicated when she asked them to leave her bar that night, not long before Kleinman was shot and killed. Rinehart testified James Stewart made a "derogatory" and "aggressive" comment about a woman at Ace's before she asked him, his brother and uncle to leave. On the stand Wednesday, James Stewart called that testimony a lie and Mark Stewart testified he "didn't hear that" or remember it. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com