LAKEPORT — Several Sonoma County Sheriff”s Office (SCSO) investigators testified Tuesday at the Lake County Courthouse about Thomas Loyd Dudney”s Oct. 20, 2009 arrest in Santa Rosa.
Judge Arthur H. Mann presided over the fourth day of testimony in Dudney”s attempted murder trial. Attorney Doug Rhoades represented Dudney and deputy district attorney Art Grothe represented the Lake County District Attorney”s Office.
Dudney faces 11 felony charges, along with many special allegations, for his alleged role in an Oct. 20, 2009 incident in which Ronald Greiner was shot, tortured and hogtied.
The 59-year-old Dudney is charged with attempted murder, simple and aggravated mayhem, torture, robbery, burglary, three types of assault, battery causing serious bodily injury and participating in a criminal street gang, The Misfits.
Greiner, who testified Feb. 9, said he recognized one of the two attackers as a man he knew by the nickname KTron and later pointed to Dudney when asked if KTron was present in the courtroom.
SCSO Detective Mike Morarity was the first witness called Tuesday. He said that on the afternoon of Oct. 20, 2009, he had been assigned to surveillance of a house on Greeneich Avenue in Santa Rosa at which Dudney was known to reside.
Investigators from the Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO) informed the SCSO that Dudney had been wanted in connection with an attempted murder earlier that day, Morarity said.
Morarity said that he had encountered Dudney about a week before the surveillance assignment, stopping Dudney for driving too fast in a Chevrolet station wagon through an SCSO parking lot.
Around 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 20, 2009, Dudney was seen driving along Greeneich Road in the station wagon with a woman in the passenger seat, Morarity said. The detective said he followed Dudney”s car for one to two miles through Santa Rosa, eventually turning on the sirens of his police vehicle after Dudney made an abrupt turn onto Rochelle Street.
Dudney stopped his car in a driveway on Rochelle Street and officers engaged in a “high risk felony stop” to apprehend Dudney, Morarity said.
Dudney was taken into custody without incident, according to Morarity, who did not testify about the identity or status of the female passenger after she exited the station wagon.
Morarity said he proceeded to the Greeneich Avenue house to secure the residence before a search warrant was being obtained. Three people were contacted at the house, including a woman named Brandi Morris, Morarity said.
SCSO Detective Jesse Hanshew testified that he arrived to the Rochelle Street scene after Dudney had been secured and that he remained there until Dudney”s station wagon was towed.
Hanshew said the car seemed “fairly clean inside” and that he saw what appeared to be streaks left by a vacuum cleaner on the interior carpet. A tow truck driver arrived and transported the station wagon to a secure SCSO facility, Hanshew said.
SCSO Deputy Joe Dulworth was the third witness called. He said that an LCSO investigator informed him on Oct. 20, 2009 that they were looking for a man known by the moniker KTom. Dulworth testified he told the LCSO that he knew KTom to be Dudney.
Detective Louis Riccardi of the Lakeport Police Department (LPD) was the final witness of the morning. Riccardi testified that he and his partner responded to Sutter Lakeside Hospital to contact Greiner.
Riccardi said he interviewed Greiner in an ambulance outside the emergency room as Greiner awaited helicopter transport to another hospital. Riccardi described Greiner”s condition as “distressed” with “multiple wounds” to the face and body and “labored” breathing.
Grothe played an edited version of an audio recording made during Greiner”s conversation with Riccardi. The jury could hear the sounds of Greiner gasping for air, apparently struggling to breathe.
Two Lake County investigators testified in the afternoon, mostly discussing the contents found on two computers seized during the investigation.
Craig Woodworth, a DA”s Office investigator and computer forensic investigator for the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force (NC3TF), said that one Dell computer tower listed the computer name as “KTOMS” and had accessed a wireless network called “misfitsforeverforevermisfits.”
LCSO Detective John Drewrey, who was the final witness called Tuesday, said that computer was removed from the Greeneich Avenue house. Woodworth testified that he also found a photograph of a Misfits patch among other files on that Dell tower.
Woodworth testified he analyzed a second computer, a Dell Inspiron, at the LCSO”s request. Drewrey later identified the Dell Inspiron as being removed from a home in West Sacramento occupied by Manuel Charles in January 2010.
Woodworth said he found Internet files on the Dell Inspiron computer indicating that a user conducted an Internet search for “Dudney” and accessed an online Record-Bee article relating to Dudney”s preliminary hearing.
Drewrey said that “numerous” items appearing to be Misfits or Misfits Motorcycle Club paraphernalia were found in the West Sacramento home.
The trial concluded for the day before Rhoades began his cross-examination of Drewrey. The trial reconvenes today at 9 a.m. in Department 1.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
