Second hatchet attack suspect pleads not guilty

One of two suspects in a December hatchet attack has pleaded not guilty to first-degree attempted murder and first-degree burglary.

Initially arrested in December, Andre D. Kennedy, 35, was extradited to Clark County late last week from Multnomah County and made his first appearance Friday in Clark County Superior Court.

Judge John Wulle set trial for April 18 and appointed attorney Steven Rucker to represent him.

Kennedy is being held in the Clark County Jail on $250,000 bail.

Sheriff’s investigators allege that on the morning of Dec. 14, defendant Mathew M. Michaelson, 28, and Kennedy went to the northern Clark County trailer home of a witness in one of Michaelson’s criminal cases and beat him nearly senseless with a hatchet 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 an assault case.

Mathis told investigators that Kennedy is a close associate of Michaelson.

Michaelson is set to go to trial in connection to the case July 18.