Trial: Was downtown Salt Lake City stabbing murder or self-defense?

There is no dispute that on April 19, 2014, Harlin Argelio Ramos stabbed a stranger to death just outside The Gateway mall in Salt Lake City, attorneys told a jury on Monday.

Later this week, at the end of a four-day trial, the jurors must decide whether Ramos is guilty of murder in 33-year-old Joaquin Gonzalez's death that night — or if he was acting in self-defense after Gonzalez allegedly attacked him.

Ramos, 32, is charged in 3rd District Court with first-degree felony murder, accused of stabbing Gonzalez four times in the chest and stomach after a scuffle near 500 West and 100 South.

Defense attorney Michael Langford said in his opening statement Monday that the two men's "worlds collided" that night as Gonzalez was in a white car talking with a friend, Megan Sellers, after a late-night movie. Ramos, Langford said, was in the area waiting for a friend — who also drove a white car — to pick him up.

Langford said his client opened Sellers' car door thinking it was his ride — and that's when Gonzalez got out of the car and a fight began.

"He got into the wrong vehicle," Langford told jurors. "A man attacked him. A man choked him. A man wouldn't let him go. Harlin was in an impossible situation, and he did what he had to do to defend himself."

But prosecutor Melanie Serassio told the jurors that the defendant was not acting in self-defense at all that day and asked them to find him guilty of murder.

Sellers testified that she was uneasy that night after she saw two men walk in front of her car. She said Gonzalez was in the passenger seat of her car and turned to give her a hug goodbye when someone opened the passenger door.

"It was almost like they waited until his back was turned to open the car door," she testified.

The woman said Gonzalez got out of the car and he started "wrestling around" with the man who had opened the door.

"I thought somebody was trying to steal my car," she testified. "I thought we were getting robbed. … I heard [Gonzalez] screaming, 'Please don't kill me. I have kids. Please don't kill me.' "

Sellers said she saw a man on top of Gonzalez making a punching or stabbing motion, and she got out of her car and used a stun gun on the attacker's neck before she ran to back her car and called 911. She noted that she didn't see Gonzalez's hands around the attacker's neck or near his chest when she shocked him.

Langford told jurors that during the scuffle, Ramos yelled in Spanish, "Help me! This man is killing me! He's choking me!" — but Sellers said she didn't remember anyone yelling in Spanish that night.

According to preliminary hearing testimony, Ramos subsequently left the area with the man who was there to pick him up. Police found two backpacks at the scene, one of which contained identifying information belonging to Ramos. They arrested him at a North Temple motel.

jmiller@sltrib.com