City man gets 2 1/2 to 5 in downtown knife assault

Defense attorney Carl Swenson and Paul Skaltsis look on at the April trial as the prosecution plays surveillance video showing Skaltsis looking for his intended victim the day of the incident. (Lebanon Voice file photo)

DOVER - The Rochester man who tased and knifed another man in an alleyway outside a Rochester convenience store last year will spend at least 2 1/2 years in state prison.
Paul Skaltsis, 26, of 135 North Main St., was found guilty in April on three of four felony counts: first-degree assault, second-degree assault and being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon.
On Monday, Judge Mark E. Howard ordered Skaltsis be remanded immediately to the New Hampshire state prison system to begin a 2 1/2- to 5-year sentence for first degree assault. Skaltsis also received a 3 1/2- to 5-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon, which will be suspended for 10 years.
The incident took place in broad daylight a little after 4 p.m. on May 6, 2015, in an alleyway near George and Ed's store on North Main Street.

Paul Skaltsis

In the assault Skaltsis knifed and tased Chris Joaquin who according to testimony during the trial had earlier harassed and assaulted Skaltsis' little sister.
Several bystanders witnessed the attack on Joaquin, including a jogger and a friend of Joaquin's who applied a makeshift tourniquet after blood began spurting from his arm when he was stabbed.
Prosecutor Tim Sullivan said in closing arguments at the trial that Joaquin "was a jerk" that day, but that didn't give Skaltsis the right to inflict the knife and taser wounds. He said Joaquin could have died if treatment hadn't been immediately given, including a transfusion of 500 cc of blood at Frisbie Memorial Hospital.
The trial ended with Skaltsis, himself, testifying that he was worried about his family's safety when he went outside and confronted Joaquin. He tased him after Joaquin threw a punch, defense attorney Carl Swenson said in closing arguments. Joaquin then threatened to go get his posse and return, so when he and his friends came back and banged on the door of Skaltsis' apartment, he had every right to go out with a large kitchen knife and defend his home and hearth, Swenson said.
But Assistant County Attorney Tim Sullivan in closing arguments painted a far different picture of the day's events, saying it wasn't defense of home and hearth, but "retaliation" and "vigilante justice" that provoked Skaltsis to go looking for Joaquin even after he'd retreated after being tased twice.
To prove his point he showed surveillance video of Skaltsis pacing back and forth in front of George and Ed's convenience store on North Main Street with a knife tucked in his pants.
Sullivan also questioned why no one in the Skaltsis household called 911 and summoned police if they were scared.
"No one called cause the 'man of the house,' Paul, was 'handling it,'" Sullivan argued.

Sullivan further told jurors that Joaquin said he never came back and banged on the door.
The felon in possession charge stems from his conviction of second degree assault in July 2009.
Sullivan said on Monday he was "pleased with the results."