Kenneth Voyles, 46, says James Grant kept firing as he tried to flee and that the response went far beyond acceptable behavior.

Grant, 73, testified Aug. 12 that he shot in self-defense after Voyles raised a heavy pair of bolt cutters above his head and moved toward him, The Oregonian reported.

Oregon law permits the use of deadly force to defend a dwelling against an intruder but does not extend that protection to commercial premises.

Grant testified that he owns homes in Nevada and China and stays at the shop when he is in Portland. City officials had already found him in violation of the industrial district's zoning rules and told him not to live there, according to The Oregonian.

The trial opened Aug. 10 in Multnomah County Circuit Court and is expected to run into next week.

Voyles filed the suit May 6 against Grant and his company, Touchstone Granite & Marble Inc., seeking $5 million in compensatory and $5 million in punitive damages for battery, assault, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to KPTV, which reviewed the complaint. The filing argues the company is liable because Grant was acting to secure the business.

The shooting happened at about 5:30 a.m. on March 6, 2023, at Touchstone Granite & Marble on Northeast Columbia Boulevard.

Voyles pushed through an outer gate, pried plywood off a garage door and cut through metal bars to squeeze inside. Carrying a flashlight, he testified that he was cold and hungry and went in looking for food and anything worth taking, assuming the place was empty.

He picked up a DeWalt bag with a drill inside, then rounded a corner into the closed showroom and found Grant walking toward him.

Grant, who had run the fabrication business for more than 30 years, had just woken up in a back room and was naked, with what appeared to be a towel over his shoulder.

Surveillance cameras captured the first encounter, in which Grant threw a cup of urine in Voyles's face, lobbed heavy tiles at him and chased him toward the garage door, according to The Oregonian's account of the testimony.

"I go, 'Stop!' Like, 'Please stop!'" Voyles told jurors, saying Grant was assaulting him and was visibly angry.

Grant then left the area and returned with a handgun he kept under his pillow.

Voyles said he had picked up the bolt cutters hoping to cut a padlock and open the garage door, because he did not want to crawl back out the way he came in, and that Grant fired without warning.

"And he goes, 'You're going to die,'" he testified. Three rounds struck his arm and torso.

Grant said he did not hear the apologies because he was not wearing his hearing aids, and that he chased Voyles and went for the gun because he wanted the intruder caught rather than gone.

He testified that he had reported break-ins repeatedly over three decades and that police never came out to investigate. The morning of the shooting, officers arrived right away.

He said he intended only to hold Voyles at gunpoint. "I said, 'Get on the ground.' ... And he looked very agitated. Looked like he was getting ready to attack me. Then I shot three times," he testified, adding that he had not wanted to use deadly force.

In the complaint, Voyles accuses Grant of shooting him in the chest at point-blank range after the first rounds, saying "Yeah. You're going to die, dude," then firing again as he squeezed back out through the broken door, KPTV reported.

He suffered penetrating chest wounds, a collapsed lung and shattered bones in his right arm that required vascular repair and multiple surgeries.

Grant holds a concealed carry permit, served in the U.S. Army and has fired more than 10,000 rounds at shooting ranges.

Police and prosecutors filed no charges against Grant, concluding he acted in self-defense.

Voyles pleaded no contest and was convicted of first-degree burglary of a dwelling and menacing, receiving five years of court-supervised drug treatment instead of prison, The Post Millennial reported. He had already served more than a year over a series of car thefts.

Grant's attorney told the court that Voyles had methamphetamine in his system that morning.

Voyles's attorney has argued that Grant could have retreated into a room with a locking door rather than using force.

Grant's side counters that he was entitled to defend himself against a stranger in the dark who raised a heavy cutting tool at him, and that firing three of the gun's 16 rounds showed restraint.