The man accused of stabbing his roommate multiple times in an Oak Hill Avenue home will face trial for attempted murder, but not for making a criminal threat, a judge ordered on Tuesday.

Wynn Sterling Antrim Anderson, 37, was arrested in November on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder and making a criminal threat, after police said he threatened his 52-year-old roommate, James William Conlon, and later stabbed him.

Tuesday afternoon Anderson appeared in court for a preliminary hearing where Conlon testified to his memory of the events.

Conlon said that on the evening of Nov. 17, he arrived at Anderson’s home at 1518 Oak Hill Ave., where he had been staying for several months.

Wynn Sterling Antrim Anderson

photo by: Conrad Swanson

A home at 1518 Oak Hill Ave. was taped off Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, after police said a 52-year-old man was stabbed.

The two had first met some time earlier inside the Douglas County Jail, Conlon said.

As he arrived back at the home, Conlon said he noticed Anderson was trading pills with a friend in exchange for methamphetamine.

Conlon said he then smoked methamphetamine with the group and began to pack his things because he hadn’t felt comfortable living in the home for a while.

In October, Conlon said, he had called police during an argument with Anderson where he was afraid of being hurt with a machete. Later, however, Conlon said Anderson never actually threatened him.

Police arrived on the scene but did not arrest Anderson during the October incident. However, he was arrested later that same day on suspicion of indecent exposure after Lawrence Police Sgt. Amy Rhoads said he was “outside without any clothes on causing a disturbance.”

On Nov. 17 and into the early morning hours of Nov. 18, Conlon said he spoke with Anderson about leaving, which did not cause a problem.

Later that morning, however, Conlon said Anderson asked him to come out to the front porch.

“I thought he had a cigarette and he was gonna split it with me,” Conlon said.

Then Anderson swung a knife at him, he said.

“I saw the knife blade in my stomach, and that’s when I knew it was serious,” Conlon said.

Conlon said Anderson stabbed him in the back as he tried to escape through the living room, then another time in the chest as he made his way to the back door.

“I grabbed hold of his arm,” he said. “I was trying to talk reason into him.”

At some point in the attack, Conlon said, Anderson bit off a part of his ear, growled “and he spit it in front of me.”

Conlon said he then made his way outside and began banging on a neighbor’s window.

“I kept getting weaker and weaker and weaker,” he said. “And I thought, ‘I’m going out here, gonna pass out.'”

Conlon said he awoke in the hospital, where he stayed until last week, having undergone four surgeries.

Anderson was arrested the day of the reported stabbing after deputies found him near the intersection of 13th Street and Haskell Avenue with blood on his clothes.

During closing arguments Defense Attorney Blake Glover asked Douglas County District Court Judge Kay Huff to dismiss the criminal threat charge from the October incident, noting the evidence did not show a threat was made.

Prosecutor Deborah Moody agreed with Glover, and Huff dismissed the charge.

Huff did, however, find that enough evidence existed to order Anderson to face trial for the attempted second-degree murder charge. She scheduled the trial to begin on May 31.

Anderson has lived at the Oak Hill Avenue home — which is across the street from Oak Hill Cemetery — since at least 2012, court records indicate. He has been arrested multiple times in the past six years and convicted of at least three counts of domestic battery and one count of assault in that time span.

Anderson remains an inmate in the Douglas County Jail. He is being held in lieu of a $105,000 bond.