MOUNT VERNON — Testifying Monday in his own defense, Alan Gromus described the night his wife was beaten with a metal baseball bat. The former Mount Vernon High School teacher told the jury that he, too, was struck in the head and then struggled with a tall, lanky man over the weapon.

Gromus is accused of beating and choking his wife and then using the bat on a neighbor, Greg O’Connor, who came to Pamela Gromus’ aid.

Alan Gromus, 57, of South Fidalgo Island is on trial for two counts of assault stemming from a Sept. 30 incident outside the couple’s Campbell Lake home.

The trial will continue today in Skagit County Superior Court.

Gromus’ lawyer, Corbin Volluz, says that O’Connor mistook Alan Gromus as the attacker as Gromus knelt to offer aid to Pam Gromus. The defense lawyer also says his client mistakenly believed O’Connor was his attacker and that Gromus struck out in self-defense when he hit O’Connor.

For Alan Gromus, Sept. 30 started with repairs around the house, and then he and his wife went to Mount Vernon, where they cleaned and fixed an apartment they own in preparation for a new tenant after Pam Gromus evicted the previous one. Gromus described a few confrontations he and his wife had with people “squatting” in the apartment and how they decided to evict the tenant.

After she was attacked, Pam Gromus told 911 dispatchers, police and her doctors that her husband hit her repeatedly with the bat and choked her with it. She also told at least one paramedic and an emergency-room doctor that she didn’t see her attacker.

But about two weeks after the attack, she told Skagit County sheriff’s deputies that her husband didn’t attack her and she didn’t remember anything beyond a blurry figure in a gray, hooded sweatshirt. She testified that she didn’t remember her statements to deputies and other people because of pain medication.

On Monday, Gromus said that he struggled with the attacker and eventually wrested the bat from him. The attacker then fled down the driveway toward Campbell Lake Road and Gromus found his wife lying on her back near her truck, he testified.

“I still had the bat in my hand and knelt down beside her to talk to her,” Alan Gromus said.

He told the jury that he shook her and shouted her name trying to get a response.

But O’Connor testified last week that when he came out of his apartment on the Gromuses’ property, he saw Alan Gromus with the bat to someone’s throat. The person turned her head and asked for help, and O’Connor said he recognized Pam Gromus.

On Monday, Alan Gromus testified that he was at his wife’s side preparing to get up to go into the house to call 911 when he was confronted by the silhouette of a person 4 or 5 feet away. But Gromus said that at the time, he didn’t realize the silhouette was O’Connor.

“I couldn’t see his face,” Gromus said. “All I saw was the image of a shadow with lights behind. He was stepping toward me. … I thought it was the attacker coming back to finish what he started.”

Gromus said he swung the bat as a deterrent to keep O’Connor away, but the bat hit the neighbor, who ran into the mud room that leads to several apartments on the property.

“I pursued him,” Gromus said.

Inside, as the two men struggled, Gromus said he finally recognized O’Connor, but the neighbor had bitten down on Gromus’ hands and wouldn’t let go. Gromus told the jury he feared for his wife and put his a knee on O’Connor’s chest to force him to let release his fingers.

Once free, Gromus went into the house, but he testified that he has no memory from the time he reached for the front doorknob and arrived at the locked door to the master bedroom where Pam Gromus and their daughter, Traci Gromus, had hid and called 911.

Skagit County Prosecutor Rich Weyrich asked Gromus why he didn’t call 911 after leaving O’Connor in the mud room.

“I wasn’t able to get into the house,” Gromus said.

Weyrich pointed out that Gromus did get inside and that the defendant had just testified that he didn’t remember how.

Gromus responded: “I was under the assumption that Pam told Traci to call 911.”

Weyrich asked him again why he didn’t use the phone when he went inside.

“At that point, I was only looking for Pam and Traci,” Alan Gromus said.

During the trial, Volluz has presented physicians for the defense who testified that Alan Gromus had suffered from a concussion and that caused him to be unsteady on his feet and to be confused the night that his wife was attacked.

Weyrich also questioned Alan Gromus on various details, including when he sought medical help for the concussion that doctors testifying for the defense say that Gromus suffered that night.

Gromus, who declined to go to the hospital Sept. 30, testified that he was in jail for 10 days before he wrote a request to jail staff about problems because of his head injury.

Gromus indicated that he understood the paperwork system used in the jail to alert corrections officers about medical issues because he also testified that he already made a request regarding his heart medication and other medical issues unrelated to his injury.

Gromus also testified that upon his release from jail, he didn’t seek an appointment to see a doctor about his injury until almost passing out in a parking lot in Burlington. Paramedics took him to the hospital.

Police testified earlier in the trial that Gromus acted intoxicated, not injured, and declined medical attention.

Deputies also say that Gromus told them several versions of what happened that night, including telling them O’Connor attacked him and then later saying that he and his neighbor together scared away the assailant.

Weyrich asked Gromus to explain why he gave different versions to investigators.

“I can’t even imagine,” Gromus said.