Bail has been set at $100,000 for the Seattle man who allegedly threatened to stab a Centralia bar employee who asked him to leave Friday night.
The defendant, Donovan E. Spillers, 28, is accused of holding a wine bottle opener with a folding knife to a bar employee’s stomach and moving the knife “back and forth across his stomach while stating ‘I’ll f**king stab you, I do not care,’” according to court documents.
The bar employee had reportedly asked Spillers to leave the bar, located in the 100 block of South Tower Avenue, because Spillers “had been acting weird while in the (bar),” according to court documents.
The employee reportedly convinced Spillers to exit the interior of the bar into an outdoor beer garden before Spillers allegedly pulled the knife.
Spillers reportedly refused to leave the beer garden, telling the employee to “call the cops” before he “got into a fighting stance” and pulled out the knife, according to court documents.
The employee stated he backed up, looked towards the bar, then looked back at Spillers to find him “six inches away holding the knife to his stomach,” according to court documents.
Court documents do not indicate how the situation was deescalated, but the two were separated when officers with the Centralia Police Department responded to the bar at approximately 10:44 p.m.
While he was talking to police, the victim saw Spillers and pointed him out to the officers, according to court documents.
Officers patted Spillers down and found the weapon the victim described: a wine bottle opener with a corkscrew on one end and a folding knife on the other.
When questioned by police, Spillers allegedly said he assaulted the victim because “he felt he was in danger,” but when asked why he felt he was in danger, he reportedly “shrugged his shoulders.”
Spillers was arrested at about 10:45 p.m. in the 100 block of South Tower Avenue, according to the Centralia Police Department.
While he was initially booked into the Lewis County Jail on accusations of first-degree assault, providing false information to a public servant and for multiple warrants out of King County, he was ultimately only charged with one count of second-degree assault in Lewis County Superior Court on Tuesday.
Spillers’ bail had been set at $150,000 over the holiday weekend, but Judge James Lawler opted to reduce Spillers’ bail to $100,000 on Tuesday due to his limited felony history and financial inability to post bail.
Prosecuting Attorney Paul Masiello noted that Spillers had several assault cases out of Seattle Municipal Court that were recently dismissed without prejudice.
“I think the dismissals are more part of the jurisdiction more than anything to do with Mr. Spillers,” said Masiello during Spillers’ preliminary hearing in Lewis County Superior Court on Jan. 18.
Lawler said the alleged use of a weapon in this case and the number of warrants listed in Spillers’ criminal history were his reasons for setting a high bail.
Spillers’ next court hearing is an arraignment hearing scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 20.
