Jury Convicts Michigan Man Of Murdering Friend In North Dakota

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (WWJ/AP) - A jury has found a Michigan man guilty of stabbing his friend to death at an oilfield crew camp in North Dakota.

Ryan Anderson, of Iron River, Michigan, was convicted earlier this week of killing 32-year-old Christopher King, also of Iron River, in March 2013. Anderson had pleaded not guilty to murder.

Authorities say the attack was part of an alcohol-fueled dispute at a crew camp between Ray and Tioga, northeast of Williston, North Dakota. A defense attorney argued that Anderson had acted in self-defense, saying King had choked him prior to the stabbing.

Authorities say that Anderson and King were longtime friends who moved from Michigan to work in North Dakota's oil fields.

In the affidavit filed in support of the charges, Williams County Sheriff's Sgt. Det. Caleb Fry alleged that King and other witnesses interrupted a fight between Anderson and his then-fiancé in the alcohol-infused night leading up to the stabbing.

Anderson's ex-fiancé testified during trial that moments before the stabbing, Anderson emerged from his bedroom and entered their housing unit's common area. Anderson was yelling at others, she said, when King jumped off the couch and lunged at him. The next thing she knew, King was laying on the ground with blood running down his stomach and Anderson had a knife in his hand.

Fry said Anderson used a 4-inch hunting knife, which had blood and pieces of flesh on it afterward, to stab King in the heart, around the heart and twice in the stomach.

Anderson faces life in prison without parole.

Anderson's trial earlier was moved to the eastern North Dakota city of Grand Forks after his attorney successfully argued he couldn't get a fair trial in Williams County because of extensive news coverage of the case.

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