News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Joshua Dohring, Attorney Robert Bejesky, and Cassandra Quintanilla are pictured in the Alcona County Trial Courtroom on Wednesday.

HARRISVILLE — Joshua Dohring, 40, and Cassandra Quintanilla, 36, were bound over to the Alcona County 23rd Circuit Court following preliminary examination Wednesday in the 81st District Court.

Dohring is charged with assault with intent to murder, and Quintanilla is charged with accessory after the fact to a felony and two counts of lying to a peace officer – violent crime investigation. They are co-defendants for an alleged stabbing that occurred on May 14 in Mikado.

Dohring was arraigned on May 18. He was given a $1,000,000 bond cash surety 10%. Quintanilla was also arraigned on May 18 and was given a $50,000 bond cash surety 10%. She has since made bond and been released from jail.

At the preliminary examination Alcona County Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth Reed questioned the witnesses and police officers doing the investigation that established a timeline of events.

The first witness called to the stand was the man allegedly stabbed by Dohring, Rodney Swalley.

Swalley testified that he had once been friends with Dohring but had not spoken to him for about two years.

The day of the incident, Swalley and Stacy Matthews, who is a friend of Swalley’s, went to the Mikado baseball fields to let their dogs run around. They got back in their vehicle and drove to the part of the baseball fields where there is a path leading to the Mikado Township Cemetery where they wanted to visit the graves of relatives.

Swalley testified that while he and Matthews were driving there, he saw Joshua Dohring and Penny Dohring, and that Joshua Dohring waved him over. Penny Dohring is Joshua Dohring’s ex-wife.

Swalley testified that they drove up to the Dohrings and got out of the vehicle. They walked to where Joshua Dohring was standing and when they were about five feet away he came and shoved Matthews.

Directly after, Swalley testified that he got into a physical altercation with Joshua Dohring. Joshua Dohring shoved him into the woods. Swalley said he fell down but then got up and got on top of Joshua Dohring. At that point, Swalley said he was stabbed. He did not feel the stabbing in the moment, but felt and saw blood.

Just before Swalley was stabbed, Swalley testified that Joshua Dohring said “I know what you’re going to do to me.”

Swalley went back to his vehicle and told Matthews to call 911 and call his brother because he knew he was going to die. Swalley soon after went unconscious. He testified that Penny Dohring had been sitting in the bed of her truck through the course of the events.

Matthews testified that she had been shoved by Joshua Dohring and that her tailbone was sore. She saw the knife in his hand at some point before the stabbing and said that she called out, “I think he has a knife.”

Once she got up after being shoved, Matthews put the dogs back in the vehicle. When Swalley came up to her after the stabbing, Matthews started applying pressure to his neck and called 911.

Matthews testified that as Penny Dohring left her truck, Penny Dohring yelled, “You guys are (expletive). I’m a witness, Josh didn’t do anything.”

Penny Dohring later testified that she did not say anything and that prior to leaving she had helped Joshua Dohring jump his motorcycle so he could leave. She said she stayed at the scene until the 911 call was over and then left. She said she saw the police vehicles coming down the road as she drove away.

Matthews and Swalley both testified that there was no specific reason they knew of why Dohring would assault them. Swalley said he had no idea what it meant when Dohring told him, “I know what you’re going to do to me.”

Matthews said that perhaps Penny Dohring and Joshua Dohring thought she would tell Penny Dohring’s family that the Dohrings were together because there was a rumor of a no-contact order. Matthews knew the family because she was at one time married to a cousin of Penny Dohring.

Penny Dohring testified that when Matthews and Swalley pulled up in their vehicle, they sat there for a few minutes before Joshua Dohring shouted, “What do you want, you (expletive).”

They then both got out of the vehicle and Joshua Dohring and Swalley started shouting expletives at each other.

Penny Dohring said that Matthews then ran up and threw her body against Joshua Dohring and fell to the ground. After that, Swalley came up and kicked him in the stomach and punched him in the face.

Swalley had testified that he never punched Joshua Dohring during the incident.

The 911 call happened at approximately 7 p.m. on May 14. At around 7:22 p.m., Joshua Dohring and Cassandra Quintanilla, who is his significant other, were at Greenbush Market pumping gas, according to video footage that was described in testimony from Alcona Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Wright.

In the footage, Quintanilla is talking to someone on the phone in the car as Joshua Dohring pumps gas. Dohring could be overheard saying, “I was trying to take care of some problems. Problem, yeah, I took care of the (expletive) problem.”

Quintanilla says into the phone, “Mom says don’t run.”

Mom refers to Kathy Martin, who owns the property that Joshua Dohring and Quintanilla live at in a trailer.

Joshua Dohring then says, “Can’t say nothing. I killed someone. I stuck that…hid the clothes in bushes.”

Deputy Wright along with other deputies from the Alcona County Sheriff’s Office arrived at Joshua Dohring’s residence sometime after 8 p.m. Quintanilla came out of the trailer to meet him. In an hour to an hour and a half, Dohring was arrested.

Quintanilla had four interviews with police officers, three with Wright, and one with Trooper Robert Mitchell. He is the trooper investigator at the Michigan State Police Alpena Post.

In the first interview which occurred the night of the incident, Quintanilla told Wright that Dohring had not told her anything about the incident. She said the same thing to Trooper Mitchell in the second interview.

In her closing argument, Reed said there was no evidence that Johsua Dohring had acted in self defense, and that the statements made by him at the market were crucial to the case and showed intent. She asked for Dohring to be bound over on a charge of assault with intent.

For Quintanilla’s charges, Reed said that there was evidence she had lied in a number of interviews and should be bound over on all three charges.

Joshua Dohring’s attorney Bill Pfeifer said in his argument that he believed assault with intent to murder required proof of first degree murder with a premeditated plan, and there was no proof of that.

Quintanilla’s attorney Robert Bejesky argued that for accessory after the fact, he had always seen that as affirmative assistance that would have prevented officers from being able to arrest a subject, and he did not see anything like that in the evidence. He did not think that mere dishonesty itself could be considered accessory after the fact.

In response, Reed read the jury instruction for assault with intent to murder that did not say anything about first degree murder, only that the offender had an intent to kill.

Judge Laura Frawley bound Quintanilla and Joshua Dohring over to Circuit Court on all charges. She said that Dohring had clearly been the first aggressor when he said, according to Penny Dohring’s testimony, “What do you want you (expletive).”

“And then the testimony that Ms. Matthews, who clearly is considerably smaller than Mr. Dohring, ran full tilt and slammed herself against him, I find that completely unbelievable testimony,” Frawley said.

After the bind over, Pfeiffer asked for a reduction in Joshua Dohring’s bond to $500,000. He said that Dohring had work lined up and he would be on a GPS tether.

Reed said that Joshua Dohring has a significant criminal history. He is unpredictable and has an anger problem. She said she believes there would be a significant risk of witness tampering, case tampering, and continued criminal activity if Joshua Dohring were to be released back into the community.

The request for bond reduction was denied by Frawley. She set Quintanilla and Joshua Dohring’s next hearing for 9:30 a.m. on July 7.

Reagan Voetberg. News Staff Writer. rvoetberg@thealpenanews.com.