Overview
- A verbal dispute over a woman escalated into a violent confrontation in a Publix parking lot that turned physical when one man returned with a machete and the other displayed a hatchet, according to police accounts.
- Police say surveillance video and an arrest affidavit show James Tristan Gay arriving, approaching Everette Eric Krichbaum, returning to his vehicle for a machete, and re-engaging before the two fought over the weapons.
- Both men suffered non-life-threatening injuries, were treated by ambulance at a hospital, and were later booked on aggravated battery charges with bonds listed at $50,000.
- After his hospital release, Krichbaum was arrested by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Marshals, while Gay was arrested the day of the incident and is listed as representing himself in jail records.
- Reporting notes that Gay was convicted in a separate 2011 killing, served part of a 15-year sentence, and was released early in June 2024, a background detail that has shaped public interest in the current case.