The day after his 21st birthday, Michael Ron Runyan, of Fort Dodge, was put on the stand to defend himself during his murder trial.

Runyan took the stand Monday at about 3:30 p.m. as the defense’s first witness.

His sister, Ann, was seated in the front row of the courtroom during his testimony.

She reminded Runyan’s attorney, Julia Keifer, before the afternoon session began that the previous day had been Runyan’s birthday.

“I don’t think the whole truth is being told,” she said. “I just want this day to end.”

After the state rested, the defense motioned for an acquittal, but District Court Judge Timothy Finn overruled the motion. He said the court is required to proceed at this point because he believes there is sufficient evidence to prove premeditation or willful injury.

While on the stand, Runyan said, “That guy didn’t have no reason to die because of the actions I took because of intoxication.”

Runyan said he didn’t notice the people on the balcony of Adelante fraternity until people started yelling.

According to Luke “Abrams” Nielson said, “You guys partying, having a good time?” to the people on the balcony.

When prosecuting attorney Stephen Holmes questioned Runyan about why such a statement resulted in a profane response, Runyan said, “Luke might have said something else.”

He said he did not make any threats or push anyone, although someone pushed him from behind.

“We didn’t do nothing to them,” he said.

He said he and Nielson kept walking and never left the sidewalk.

Runyan said about three guys were in front of him and more were behind him.

“I just told them I didn’t want any trouble,” Runyan said. “They followed us some distance. I was upset that they did that.”

Runyan said he didn’t remember anyone particularly giving him trouble. He was shown a slide of Harold “Uri” Sellers taken by the medical examiner and asked if he remembered seeing him during the first altercation. He said he did not.

Runyan said they headed back to the van at that point. “I thought we were ready to go.”

Runyan said he couldn’t remember any conversation on the way back to the van and said he might have been leading the way but didn’t remember.

He does not remember asking Nielson for his knife, Runyan said, although Nielson earlier testified Runyan did indeed ask.

Runyan said he noticed Christopher Grady, 22, of Fort Dodge, was not with the group back at the van and he decided to go look for him.

“I didn’t know where I was at,” he said, and didn’t realize he would walk by Adelante again. He said he did not know Nielson had followed him.

When he started walking by, he said he heard people say, “Here he comes again. Let’s get him.”

He said he told them he didn’t want trouble. “I’m here looking for somebody.”

Runyan said he kept walking along the sidewalk when four or five guys “looked like they were trying to circle around me.”

At that point, he said he started walking up the driveway.

“I remember somebody grabbing my arm,” he said, but didn’t realize it was Nielson.

Runyan said he told the guys, “Just leave me alone; I’m leaving.”

Then, he said, “I grabbed the knife and told them to leave me alone.”

Runyan said he tried stabbing Sellers in the arm. “I thought they were gonna beat me up, kick my ass,” Runyan testified.

He said he was worried and took off running. “They were pretty big-sized boys … I didn’t know what was going on,” he said.

He said he had not thought about running before he took out the knife.

Runyan said he saw Nielson running with him.

“I couldn’t believe what happened,” Runyan said. “I told him I’d stabbed somebody.”

Runyan said he was “freaked out” and tossed the knife behind some bushes after Nielson told him to get rid of it.

Runyan said he had the knife in his pocket since a fishing trip the Thursday before. He said he realized he had it when he looked for his cigarettes before they left Fort Dodge to come to Veishea.

“I knew I had it,” Runyan said.

Criminologist Paul Bush testified earlier Monday afternoon that the knife would have been sticking out a little from the shallow pocket of the Jensen Builders jacket Runyan was wearing.

Runyan said he fell asleep during the drive back to Fort Dodge. The next day, he said, he went to Grady’s house and found out Sellers had died when he saw it on the news.

He said he let Grady cut his hair because he was scared. He said he spent the next few days at Grady’s house. “I was just thinking about what happened,” he said.

Grady testified during the morning session.

Grady said he helped Runyan change his identify by cutting his hair following the day of the stabbing.

“Yeah, I cut his [Runyan’s] hair,” he said. “He’s my friend, and I didn’t want to see him get in trouble.”

Grady said he went with Runyan to the Veishea celebration, but the two were separated shortly after they arrived.

He said Runyan seemed different the day after the stabbing.

“Mike’s always smiling, talking. … he’s a good guy,” Grady said. “But he was in his own world.”

Runyan said he knew he had to turn himself in after he saw his face on television Thursday.

He had a friend get him a hotel room for the night, he said, because, “I wanted to be by myself.”

The next morning, he turned himself in to the police. After turning himself in, he was escorted to a back room for questioning. Runyan said he did not ask for an attorney.

“I told them I’d tell them my sad story,” he said.

Jack Seward, a special agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and one of the two officers who questioned Runyan, testified in the morning that he had asked Runyan directly if he had returned to the van between the two altercations, to which Runyan said no.

“He asked if I went there and retrieved anything out of the van,” Runyan said.

Runyan said he and his companions had split a 12-pack of beer evenly, each getting two, before proceeding to several parties and drinking “quite a bit.”

Seward testified earlier that Runyan admitted to “popping some pills” before leaving for Ames.

He said the pills were probably “downers” or morphine. He said Runyan told him he did not take any drugs while in Ames.

Seward said according to Runyan’s statement both he and Nielson had “quite a bit to drink” but were sober enough to drive.

Tom Bennett, state medical examiner, said blood samples from Sellers showed a .17 percent blood-alcohol level

Tests done on Sellers’ urine showed a higher content, Bennett said, indicating that Sellers was “coming down” from his drunken state.

Bennett testified that Sellers suffered “death through shock and blood loss” as a result of the stab wound.

He said the knife punctured Sellers’ right lung, the sack around his heart and his aorta.

Bennett showed a slide demonstrating that the knife went all the way through Sellers’ aorta.

He said Sellers’ right lung collapsed and filled with blood as a result of the wound, which would take five to 10 minutes for a normal person.

Runyan’s testimony is expected to continue today.