Drifter to Be Arraigned in Near-Fatal Stabbing Over Playing of Portable Stereo

As federal officials today finish up their attempt to count the nation’s homeless, a 25-year-old transient in Hermosa Beach faces charges that underscore the brutality of life on the streets.

John Mark Skinner--a Texas drifter who for weeks had been camped at an all-night coin laundry because he could plug in his portable stereo there--was scheduled to be arraigned today on charges of attempted murder after witnesses said he nearly stabbed to death a man who tried to force him to play a Led Zeppelin tape instead of religious music, authorities said.

The victim in the Monday evening attack, James Routson, 28, of Hermosa Beach, was listed in serious but stable condition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Routson was stabbed in the arm, thigh and chest during the confrontation, which began around 5 p.m. in front of a roomful of horrified customers. It ended across the street in the parking lot of the Hermosa Beach police station, where Routson tried to elude Skinner by hiding under the police chief’s Jeep.

Witnesses said the incident began when Routson, with four companions, walked into the Pier Coin Wash on Pier Avenue. Skinner, they said, was sitting as usual near a washing machine where he had propped his stereo, which was blasting Christian music.

“It was some kind of gospel music, but not even good gospel--it was like something you’d hear in the ‘50s,” said Darlene Turner, 40, a homeless woman who knew both Skinner and Routson as regulars around the Hermosa Beach Pier.

“He had it going full blast all day, and it was irritating,” she said. “It was so loud you almost couldn’t tell the words.”

Witnesses said Routson and one of his friends complained about the music and pulled out a newly bought tape of the rock band Led Zeppelin.

“They walked over and took out the tape and started to put Led Zeppelin in,” recalled Gary Vehawn, 18, of Anaheim, who, with Routson, was spending the afternoon at the laundry. “(Skinner) got real upset and started yelling, ‘You should have asked!’ ”

Vehawn said the argument escalated until Routson began throwing punches. Suddenly, he said, “(Skinner) just tripped out, and pulled a big 10-inch butcher knife out from the leg of his pants.”

As other customers backed off to call police, Skinner began slashing Routson, who was trying to shield himself with a plastic waste can, Vehawn said. When his arm was stabbed, he dropped the can and ran out the back door, where Skinner stabbed him in the chest, puncturing a lung, according to police reports. Routson then staggered back through the laundry, through the rush-hour traffic on Pier Avenue and across the street to the police station, where he tried to hide under a Jeep Cherokee that was parked in the lot.

But Skinner was still stabbing him in the back of the thigh when Detective Nancy Cook found the pair and forced Skinner at gunpoint to drop the knife, said Sgt. Steve Endom.

Endom said the incident disrupted traffic and prompted waves of passers-by to file police reports.

But Rick Butte, owner of Pier Coin Wash, said he wasn’t surprised.

“That guy (Skinner) is here all the time, blasting away with that thing,” Butte said. “I’ve told him before to turn it off, but he plays it anyway--unplugs the washing machines and plugs his stereo in.”

Butte said he had been at the laundry until about noon Monday, and that he had warned Skinner then to keep the volume down.