Siblings give different accounts of father's fatal stabbing at Lincoln murder trial (2024)

In emotional testimony that was tearful at times, Ashley Kruger told a jury Thursday about the day her father, who she described as her best friend, was fatally stabbed during a family gathering last year at her home.

"I'm sorry," she said, crying, and pointing at Joseph Kruger, the man on trial for first-degree murder. "That's my brother right there."

A day later, it would be Joseph Kruger's turn to take the stand in his own defense, giving a version of events that differed in key respects.

One described Joseph Kruger as relentlessly going after their father, then threatening to kill him before grabbing a steak knife from a picnic table and stabbing him as he tried to catch his breath.

The other says it was his father, Mark Kruger, who wouldn't stop hitting him, so he picked up the knife hoping to stop him. When he swung it around to show him, he said, his father threw one final punch at him, colliding with the serrated knife in his outstretched hand.

Their accounts came back to back, Ashley Kruger was the last of the state's witnesses Thursday and Joseph Kruger the first of the defense witnesses Friday.

Ashley Kruger said that on May 7, 2023, a Sunday, her mom woke her up with a call asking if they could have a gathering at Ashley's home on Baldwin Avenue later that afternoon, and she agreed.

They grilled steaks and ate outside on picnic tables to celebrate the life of an uncle diagnosed with cancer.

She snapped about a dozen photos of the calm before the storm.

Ashley Kruger said her brother, Joe, got there some time after 6 that night, just sitting in his car for a bit. He seemed agitated, she said.

She said her son asked Joe to help fix his bike, and he did.

"At some point, (did) you have some words with your brother?" Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Eric Miller asked her.

She said her 12-year-old son started bickering with his younger sister, and Joe said he "needed his a** beat."

Ashley Kruger said she told Joe to stop, that's just what kids do and showed him the scar she got when he pushed her as a kid.

In response, he insulted her and told her she deserved it, she said.

Joseph Kruger remembers the exchange differently. He said he saw his nephew shove his much smaller sister and told him "not to f*ing shove your sister."

He said Ashley blew up, and he said: "F* you, I'm leaving."

That's when their dad, Mark Kruger, got up and told Joe to pick on someone his own size, and punched him in the face.

Ashley said Joe immediately started swinging back.

Joe said he didn't see the initial punch coming and hit the ground.

"He dropped me. He knocked me out. Everything went white. It was kind of blurry at that point," he said.

Joe Kruger said he came to with his sister and her significant other, Kenny, holding him down by his shoulders, and Mark pacing and "talking sh*t" behind them.

He said he didn't understand why they were holding him down because he was the one being attacked.

Ashley Kruger described the two men— her brother then 40 and her dad 59— going at it, getting separated, then going at it again. She said Mark had gotten the better of Joe for a time, but by the end Joe had Mark up against a fence, Joe's arms at Mark's neck until Kenny pulled him off.

"Did you hear either one of them say anything?" the prosecutor asked her.

After a brief pause, she said she heard Joe say: "I'm going to kill you."

Asked why she didn't tell police who interviewed her that day, she said she was protecting Joe.

"I don't want my brother to be in prison for life so I kept that out," she said. "I chose not to give them first-degree."

Referring to first-degree murder, which requires premeditation.

Ashley Kruger said when they separated she thought the fight was over. They all did. She said Mark was trying to catch his breath, and she swooped in to pick up her toddler and was taking him up the stairs of the deck when Kenny started yelling at her that it was all her fault.

"And then my brother stabbed my dad," Ashley Kruger said in almost a whisper, her head down.

When Joe pulled the knife out, Mark put his hand to his chest immediately, "and here the f* we are."

After, she said, Joe said: "I f*ing told you so."

Earlier in the day, Ashley's significant other, Kenny Bornemeier, had given a matching account, though the stabbing happened when his back was turned. He said he turned when he saw Ashley's eyes get big.

A day later, Joseph Kruger said that what he had said after the stabbing was, "I f*ing told you to stop."

And he denied threatening to kill his father or holding him up against the fence. He said they stumbled against the edge of the garage at one point and he tried to shove his father off. Then, Joseph Kruger said Kenny pulled him off and shoved him toward the picnic table.

He said he was panicking, crying, looking for his keys to leave when he looked up and saw Mark coming at him again.

"I just didn't feel like it was going to end," he said. "I was afraid for my life."

Joseph Kruger said he picked up a steak knife from the table and swung it around in front of him to show his dad and told him to stay back and stop hitting him.

"And he looked at the knife and he looked at me and he came at me swinging," he said.

Joseph Kruger said he had the knife in his hand, turned his head and closed his eyes.

"And I just braced for a punch. And I felt the serrated edge of the knife, I felt it hit his skin, like a popping sensation in my hand," he said.

In the end, it will be for jurors to decide which version they believe. They are expected to get the case for deliberations Tuesday, after they hear from the final witnesses Monday.