WATERLOO - Prosecutors rested their case against a Clinton man accused of killing another man during a racially charged street fight a year ago, but it was a rocky conclusion.

Kenyatta Harlston, 40, of Clinton, is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Nicholas Blackburn, 24, of Dubuque. The fight occurred on Aug. 25, 2007, in downtown Dubuque. Harlston's trial, which began last week, was moved to Waterloo because of extensive pre-trial publicity.

The proceedings came to a halt after a witness, Don Lochner, said one of the men involved in the August melee looked similar to a juror.

"He looks like the guy in the jury in the last row," Lochner said, pointing at one of the jurors.

Lochner had been asked to describe the man in the fight. His description drew a sudden, stunned reaction from the courtroom.

"Oh gosh," exclaimed Dubuque Assistant County Attorney Chris Corken.

Defense attorney Aaron Hawbaker asked that District Court Judge Monica Ackley declare a mistrial, arguing the incident would taint the jury's deliberations.

"That creates a number of problems that simply can't be undone," Hawbaker said.

Corken said the jury could be asked to disregard the comparison without harming their objectivity.

"It is a mistake. It is an unfortunate one, but I don't believe it raises itself to trigger a mistrial," she said.

Ackley ordered the trial to continue. She said she believed the jurors would take their oath seriously enough to disregard Lochner's actions. Ackley spent more than 30 minutes deliberating before she came back to the courtroom with her ruling. The announcement drew a sigh of relief from Blackburn's friends and family in the courtroom.

Just before leaving the witness stand, Lochner stumbled again when he turned Ackley and apologized.

"Sorry for my error," he said.

Hawbaker renewed his mistrial request on that second incident. Ackley has not ruled on that yet.

Evidence presented Tuesday focused on accounts by Dubuque police officers who encountered Harlston before and after he was arrested and forensic evidence from the case. Several officers said Harlston told them he acted in self defense and never meant to hurt anyone.

All the police officers said that Harlston didn't have visible injuries from the fight, or complain of any pain.

Cpl. Mark Steil, of the Dubuque Police Department, said Harlston said he and his friends were being "jumped" by a large group of white men, and he was acting in self-defense during his booking procedure.

"He said 'the only reason this was a big deal was because of it was a white boy who got hurt,'" Steil said.

One officer who had been ordered to photograph Harlston's injuries said Harlston told him he was punched in the face, but didn't have any injuries.

Deputy Matthew Sitzmann, of the Dubuque County Sheriff's Office, said Harlston told him he didn't mean to hurt anyone in the fight while at a dentist's office visit on Oct. 2, 2007.

"He said I'm not crazy and I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I didn't mean for anybody to get killed," Sitzmann said in a report read in court.

Officers testified they recovered three knives from the area around the apartment where Harlston was staying. Two were similar to kitchen knives, while one was serrated folding knife.

Bridget Lewis, a state fingerprint expert, said she was unable to recover any latent prints from the knives, in part because they'd already been handled by the DNA analysis experts. Lewis said it's not uncommon for prints to be unrecoverable after DNA testing.

Victor Murillo, a state tool mark expert, said he couldn't be sure if any of the knives were used to stab Blackburn, but testing also couldn't rule them out. Murillo's testing focused on the serrated blade.

He said marks left on cartilage from Blackburn's chest wound were "in the same class," meaning they had similar markings to those left on rubber and other materials used in tool mark tests, but nothing conclusive.

On cross examination, Murillo said that only put them in "the same ball park" for testing.

Contact Josh Nelson at (319) 291-1565 or josh.nelson@wcfcourier.com.