Rufus Smith

The jury trial began Wednesday for a Lawrence man charged with attempted second-degree murder after a May stabbing in North Lawrence.

Rufus Henry Smith is charged in connection with an incident at a home in the 100 block of Maple Street, where police found a 37-year-old Lawrence man with apparent stab wounds around 1:30 a.m. on May 9.

Smith fled the scene, but police caught up with him at an apartment in the 2400 block of Ousdahl Road just after 6 a.m. that day, Lawrence Police Department spokesman Trent McKinley said. The apartment’s 24-year-old tenant, who knew Smith, called police after Smith refused to leave her apartment, McKinley said.

McKinley said Smith grabbed a knife and tried to stab the woman as she called police, wounding her hand. When officers arrived, they found Smith with serious stab wounds to his torso that police presume were from the earlier incident in North Lawrence, McKinley said.

The stabbing victim was then treated for his wounds at a Kansas City-area trauma center and survived.

Smith has multiple convictions in Douglas County dating back to 2000, including drug possession, theft and criminal threats, according to the Department of Corrections and Douglas County District Court records.

After Smith was convicted in 2007 of battery, Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson told the Journal-World that Smith was “an individual who just cannot conform to the rules of society.”

“We will keep trying Mr. Smith and he will change his behavior or spend a long time in jail,” Branson said in 2007.

Smith’s trial will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday, said Cheryl Kunard, an assistant to Branson.