testimony concludes in Hoffman Estates wrongful death suit

Testimony in Joseph Biedermann’s wrongful death trial concluded in dramatic fashion Thursday with him taking the witness stand to admit he stabbed Terrance Michael Hauser 61 times in the early morning hours of March 5, 2008.

Biedermann, 32, said he killed Hauser in self-defense several hours after the men met for the first time at a bar near the Hoffman Estates apartment complex where both of them lived.

Biedermann claimed Hauser brandished a medieval-style dagger and threatened him with sexual assault.

A Rolling Meadows jury acquitted Biedermann on the charges in 2009, but Hauser’s family then brought a wrongful-death suit against Biedermann seeking at least $50,000 in damages.

Biedermann testified he’d had about 15 drinks, including a 12-pack of beer, before he met Hauser at the bar. They talked sports until management refused to serve Biedermann, after which they went to Hauser’s home to continue drinking, Biedermann said.

Biedermann claimed he passed out on the sofa and awoke to find Hauser looming over him with a sword in one hand and the dagger in another. Hauser had the sword at his throat and threatened to kill him, said Biedermann, who testified that he knocked the sword away but was stabbed when Hauser cut off his escape.

“It happened very, very quickly,” said Biedermann, who said he wrenched the dagger away from Hauser and began stabbing him because he feared for his life.

“I did what I had to do to get away,” said Biedermann during an often testy exchange with Michael LaMonica, the Hauser family’s attorney.

LaMonica questioned Biedermann’s claims of a struggle, noting that no furniture had been overturned, the wine glasses the men drank from remained undisturbed on the coffee table and the injuries Biedermann suffered were superficial compared to the grave wounds Hauser sustained. Moreover, the dagger Biedermann used to stab Hauser was found on the lower shelf of the coffee table, suggesting that someone placed it there while kneeling over the victim, LaMonica said.

To illustrate he physical disparity between the two men, LaMonica asked the 5’10”, 185 lb. Biedermann to stand next to Ian Hauser, who physically resembles his oldest brother Mike, who stood 5’6” and weighed about 145 lbs.

Asked by LaMonica if 61 stab wounds weren’t excessive, a visibly drained Biedermann replied, “I was defending my life, sir, and I did whatever was necessary.”

LaMonica rejected his explanation.

“When you stab someone 61 times and kill him, you have to come up with some defense. You have to justify it,” LaMonica said

Closing arguments begin this morning in Chicago.