Witnesses say bar fight started with quip and ended in near death

James Lookabaugh said a fight prompted by an offhanded response to a man he had just met at a North Belle Vernon bar three years ago nearly turned tragic.

Lookabaugh, 47, of Texas, testified to a Westmoreland County jury on Tuesday he owned an oil and gas business and was in town on March 7, 2019 for work when he met a friend and his girlfriend for dinner then went for drinks at Just a Tavern on Broad Avenue.

Prosecutors contend Eric Cook, 46, of Donora, stabbed three people during a fight at the bar. He is charged with three counts each of attempted murder and simple assault and six aggravated assault offenses.

Lookabaugh, during the second day of Cook’s trial, told jurors he was stabbed twice in the chest during the fracas that he said started with his comment.

He testified he and Cook were seated next to each other at the crowded bar as others came up to Lookabaugh to ask for a job. Cook claimed he had recently been released from prison, Lookabaugh said.

“I wouldn’t put that on my job resume,” Lookabaugh testified. “I meant it, I wouldn’t put it on a job resume. I turned around and started talking to someone else and the next thing I know Chris and him were fighting.”

Westmoreland County prosecutors contend that after that comment, Cook and Lookabaugh’s friend, Chris Chambers, formerly of Arkansas, had a brief argument that became physical.

Lookabaugh testified both Cook and Chambers rolled over on floor, then he noticed Chambers’ girlfriend, who prosecutors said had previously known Cook from school, was heavily bleeding from a stab wound to her inner thigh.

Elisa Lenzie formerly of Monongahela, testified she was slashed during the fight.

Witnesses testified Lenzie’s wounds were substantial and nearly fatal.

Scott Batton, 37, worked as a emergency medical technician and was socializing in the bar that night. Batton said he found Lenzie on a stairway as blood squirted from her thigh into the air, applied a tourniquet and used his fingers to slow her bleeding until an ambulance arrived.

“The bleeding slowed down but I didn’t stop it. I thought she was going to die,” Batton testified.

Other witnesses told jurors they didn’t see how the fight started or who initiated the violence.

Defense attorney Jim Robinson previously told jurors that Cook acted in self defense. Robinson, in questions to witnesses suggested Chambers, who was slashed in the face, started the fight after seeing his girlfriend talk to Cook at the bar.

Chambers denied he started the fight and said that after Lookabaugh’s quip he saw Cook reach into his pocket for a knife and pushed the man away to prevent any violence.

The trial is expected to continue on Wednesday.