A 26-year-old Baltimore man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend in Columbia in December 2007 was found guilty of second-degree asault and reckless endangerment in Howard County Circuit Court Aug. 21.

Following a three-day trial, a jury deliberated for 2 1/2 hours before finding Kazeem Akinniyi guilty on the two counts, according to Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for Howard County State's Attorney Dario Broccolino.

But the jury acquitted Akinniyi of more serious charges, including attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault, Kirwan said.

Akinniyi now faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, Kirwan said. His sentencing date is scheduled for Nov. 14.

Prosecutors argued that Akinniyi broke into the apartment of Sharon Johnson, his former girlfriend, on Turnabout Lane, in Wilde Lake, Dec. 27, 2007, at about 4:50 a.m., attacking Jefferson Bolden with a knife while the couple were in bed.

Akinniyi's attorney, meanwhile, argued that the two men had brawled and the stabbing was in self-defense.

Prosecutors alleged that Akinniyi began stabbing Bolden in the bedroom and continued to stab him after Bolden fled the room. He was motivated by jealousy, Deputy State's Attorney Mary Murphy said in her closing argument.

"This isn't self-defense. This is attempted murder," Murphy said. "He wasn't there to make nice with him. He was there to kill him."

After wounding Bolden numerous times, prosecutors said, Akinniyi jumped out of a window in the third-floor apartment, breaking both of his legs.

Murphy said that Bolden suffered many knife wounds in the attack while Akinniyi had none.

But Akinniyi's attorney, Janette DeBoissiere, said the wounds were more like the type of slashes that could occur during a brawl, not the deep cuts associated with a stabbing.

During closing arguments, DeBoissiere also argued that both Johnson and Bolden had lied on the stand and had set up Akinniyi to take a fall.

"They lied repeatedly to you," DeBoissiere said. She produced phone records that showed Johnson had called Akinniyi a few hours before the stabbing, which Johnson denied in her testimony to the jury, and had repeatedly called him in previous months.

"How can she explain that phone call?" DeBoissiere said.

"They put him here in this position," DeBoissiere said of Bolden and Johnson. "They set this up somehow."

Prosecutors declined comment on the case until after sentencing. DeBoissiere also declined comment.

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