Two men accused of stabbing and robbing another man as he walked along a Wendouree footpath have been committed to stand trial.
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Police allege Jake David Wakelin, 25, and Zac Eric Taylor-Pring, 21, jumped out of a black Statesman and stabbed Tony Minion with knives at 5.30am on December 29, 2017.
The pair allegedly took Mr Minion’s bag containing clothes, mobile phone and wallet valued at $1000.
Mr Minion says he ran as soon as he saw a knife but received two different stab wounds.
Wakelin and Taylor-Pring, who are in custody, fronted the Ballarat Magistrates Court on Wednesday for a committal hearing.
Mr Minion was one of two people to give evidence for the prosecution case.
He said he was walking home from his girlfriend’s house at 5.30am so he could get his son’s bedroom ready before he arrived to stay.
“I was on a footpath and a car pulled up on the wrong side of the road next to me,” Mr Minion said.
“They said, ‘are you ready for this?’ and got out of the car.”
He said he believed Taylor-Pring and Wakelin stopped him from walking. He testified he saw Taylor-Pring through the car window.
During cross-examination, Wakelin and Taylor-Pring’s barristers questioned Mr Minion over not identifying the knives he claimed Wakelin and Taylor-Pring had.
Barrister for Taylor-Pring, Luke Barker, asked Mr Minion what the knife looked like, to which he replied he did not know.
Mr Barker asked Mr Minion if he thought it was a box-cutter knife, to which he replied he also did not know.
“I just saw it and ran,” he said.
Police informant Detective Senior Constable Tony Euvrard told the court the car allegedly used in the incident was intercepted on January 1.
But a knife located in the car had no links to the alleged stabbing and armed robbery, Detective Senior Constable Euvrard said.
He said the there were no fingerprints or DNA evidence in the case and police had finished their investigations.
Magistrate Andrew Capell committed Wakelin and Taylor-Pring to stand trial in the County Court at Ballarat.
Wakelin pleaded not guilty to 13 charges, including armed robbery, intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing serious injury, unlawful assault with a knife, failing to stop on police request and unlicensed driving.
Taylor-Pring pleaded not guilty to eight charges, including armed robbery, intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing serious injury and unlawful assault with a knife.
