Question for jury: Did Gianluca Bordone stab Rocco Rodden in self-defense?

To hear prosecutors tell it, the Oyster Bay event promoter on trial for a manslaughter charge could have run away from the "raging mob" outside a Manhattan ax-throwing club in 2023 but instead "escalated the violence" when he took out a knife and fatally stabbed a New Jersey teenager in the heart.

Gianluca Bordone, who took the stand in his own defense, had testified that he could have fled when he encountered 17-year-old Rocco Rodden, of Warren, New Jersey, Manhattan prosecutor Alfred Peterson told jurors Wednesday in his closing arguments. He called it "some of the most powerful pieces of testimony."

But the defense attorney for Bordone, in his summation, also pointed the jury back to his client's dramatic testimony: Bordone told jurors he thought that members of a drunken mob that was fighting on the street would "stomp me" and "crack me over my head" with a bottle. And he had testified that he was "exhausted" and felt like he couldn't run anymore.

"I was scared for my life," Bordone testified, according to his lawyer, Harlem defense attorney Anthony Ricco, who quoted his client from trial transcripts.

Ricco told the jury Wednesday: "This young man didn't do anything but run for his life."

Whether Bordone feared imminent death and acted in self-defense or felt that he could have escaped are the competing narratives that the prosecution and defense stressed in their closing arguments Wednesday. They will be key to the jury as it begins deliberations Thursday.

The jury will be tasked with deciding if Bordone's act of using deadly physical force was justified under the law.

Prosecutors have argued Bordone had a "duty to retreat" because he could have safely escaped the situation. The defense has countered that Bordone feared imminent death and was justified in stabbing the victim.

Bordone, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree manslaughter and assault charges in the death of Rodden and the slashing of his brother Anthony Rodden, told the court that he waved his knife at a group of advancing teens in the early morning hours of Nov. 23, 2023, outside the venue Live Axe.

Bordone contended he was warning them to stay away from him after he and his friends had been beaten during a bar fight.

"I screamed, 'I have a knife!'" Peterson, senior trial counsel in the Manhattan DA's office, quoted Bordone as testifying. The prosecutor called that statement "devastating to his defense."

Bordone, who went to Roslyn High School, had met up with his high school buddies — most of whom were then in college — in the city the night before Thanksgiving in 2023.

The group embarked on a boozy reunion, drinking a high-proof alcohol concoction consisting of liquor, water and fruit juice in a plastic gallon jug.

Rodden had come to the city with his older brother and sister and a group of fellow teenagers also back home from college.

Rodden's friends testified they also had been drinking heavily.

 Ace Burns, 39, who worked as a bodyguard for Bordone that night, testified that a fight broke out around 1:30 a.m. as both groups started leaving the club. Burns said he didn't know why the fighting started, but he saw members of the groups body slamming, punching and kicking each other. A young woman was shoved to the ground, he said. 

Bordone and his friends testified earlier in the trial that they left the area, some beaten and bloodied, and went to another bar.

But one of the friends left his phone at the club, so they went back to try to find it.

When they got back, the fighting continued.

At 1:45 a.m., Bordone texted one of his friends, Peterson reminded the jury Wednesday: "You have no idea what just happened outside lol."

Peterson told jurors Wednesday that several statements he made to police that night showed Bordone's "consciousness of what he did."

Bordone told police: "It's on me. I'm screwed. ... Oh my God. My life is over."

And when his friends arrived at the precinct to talk to police, Bordone called out to them, according to Peterson: "Shut the [expletive] up. ..."Don't fold!"

Peterson posed a question to the jury.

"Does that sound like the comments of someone who was acting in self-defense?"

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.