A transient man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to attacking a man with a hatchet because he implicated him in a crime.
Trial for Mathew M. Michaelson, 28, who is charged with first-degree attempted murder, burglary and intimidating a witness, was set for Feb. 23.
Michaelson has two other pending cases — an October case alleging second-degree assault and attempt to elude an officer and a case this month alleging he stole two ATM machines.
Trial for the assault case was set for April 11 and June 6 for the ATM case.
Michaelson was arrested last week in Ariel, in Cowlitz County, on a warrant relating to the hatchet attack. Sheriff’s investigators allege that on the morning of Dec. 14, Michaelson and a co-defendant, Andre D. Kennedy, 35, went to the trailer home of a witness in one of Michaelson’s criminal cases and beat him nearly senseless before fleeing.
After sheriff’s deputies were alerted, the victim, Gary Mathis, who lives in the 2500 block of Northeast 199th Street, was rushed to a local hospital for treatment of a concussion and lacerations.
Mathis, who is out of the hospital and recovering, told investigators that he thought the men were out to get him because he implicated Michaelson in a crime; Michaelson was released from jail on bail on Nov. 24 relating to the assault case.
Mathis said he knew Kennedy only by the moniker “Country,” and that Kennedy is closely associated with Michaelson. Detectives also uncovered a taped jail telephone conversation on Oct. 16 in which Michaelson called Mathis a “rat,” according to court records.
Kennedy was arrested last week in Portland and booked in the Multnomah County Jail. Deputy Prosecutor Alan Harvey said he had not yet waived extradition to Clark County.
Two nights after the hatchet attack, while reportedly on the run, Michaelson allegedly stole ATM machines from B & B Country Store, 1804 N.W. 119th St. in Vancouver, and Z Mart, 1010 N.W. 219th St. in Ridgefield.
Both ATMs were found later, one on Northwest 199th Street and the other near the 7800 block of Fruit Valley Road. The money in both had not been taken.
