A jury convicted Matthew David Thornton on March 24 of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon after Thornton allegedly stabbed Clifford Riek 17 times outside Bub’s Dive Bar on Garnet Avenue on March 9, 2007. Thornton, 27, of San Diego, faces a maximum term of 24 years in prison for stabbing Riek, 28, in the neck, face and back. Riek survived the assault. The jury, comprised of seven men and five women, also convicted Thornton of committing battery with serious bodily injury , following one day of deliberations. The trial began March 16. Thornton did not testify. Minutes before the stabbing, a security guard had thrown Riek out of Bub’s Dive Bar. Riek could not identify Thornton as his attacker as he testified he was too intoxicated to remember much of what happened that night. Riek said he did not know why the security guard had ejected him from the bar. William Guerin, an off-duty El Cajon police officer, happened to be inside the bar just before Riek was stabbed and testified he identified himself as an officer to Thornton, who then fled. Guerin chased after Thornton, who dropped a knife. Guerin asked someone to stay with the knife, but lost Thornton. San Diego police officers arrested Thornton shortly afterwards. Deputy District Attorney Allen Brown argued that Thornton’s DNA was found on the knife, along with the victim’s blood. A mixture of Riek and Thornton’s DNA was found on the knife handle. Thornton was also cut with the knife and received five stitches on his forearm after he was arrested and taken to a hospital. Thornton’s attorney, Brian Funk, asked for an acquittal, saying that security cameras showed it was impossible for Thornton to have stabbed Riek. He argued that there was “evidence that it was more than one person.” He said security cameras suggested a man with a knife wore different clothing than Thornton, and the off-duty police officer was chasing another man, and not Thornton. Funk said eye-witness identification is “the least reliable” method in observation, and cited memory gaps by the victim and others. “It’s a bar fight,” said Funk, saying others had joined. Funk said Riek antagonized bar staff and was ejected because “he was being a jerk that night.” Patrick John Barreiro, 26, of Oceanside had pleaded no-contest in July 2007 to punching Riek that night, but not to using a knife. A judge originally charged Barreiro with felony assault and ordered he spend 180 days in jail, but the sentence was dropped to a misdemeanor charge and Barreiro only spent one night in jail. Barreiro was also fined $360, ordered to perform 20 days of public service work and barred from drinking alcohol for the next three years. Thornton has a robbery conviction from 2004 in Vista Superior Court, which could increase his sentence. Thornton’s latest trial was delayed so long because his attorneys kept changing; Funk was his sixth lawyer. Thornton went on trial in November 2008 on assault, battery and burglary charges in an unrelated case involving a disturbance in an Oceanside home, but the jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. San Diego Superior Court Judge Kerry Wells set sentencing for Thornton on April 24. Thornton remains at the George Bailey Detention Facility on $400,000 bail.