LAKEPORT — The Thomas Loyd Dudney attempted murder trial reconvened Wednesday morning with the prosecution presenting evidence for the first time in nearly a week after weather conditions and court availability delayed the trial.
The trial had been scheduled to convene Feb. 17 in Department 4 in Clearlake but road closures following morning snowfall led to the postponement of that day”s proceedings. Monday being a court holiday also affected courtroom scheduling.
Judge Arthur H. Mann presided. 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 Lakeport resident 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.
Richard Martin Strang testified first Wednesday, saying he was a sergeant with the Vallejo Police Department at the time assigned to the forensic unit of the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force (NC3TF).
Strang said he used a software extraction device to download call logs, contacts and text messages from a cell phone with one serial number matching the 10-digit phone number previously identified as belonging to a cell phone registered to Dudney.
The extracted phone records indicated calls were made or received three times between 6:10 and 8:20 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2009, including a short call at 6:23 a.m. to contact named Debbie James, Strang said. Records indicated several more calls between 8:21 and 8:42 a.m., he said.
Another investigator previously testified Dudney”s phone accessed cell towers in the Hopland area between 6 to 8:20 a.m., and then accessed towers in locations down Highway 101 until hitting towers near Windsor at 8:50 a.m.
Detective John Drewrey of the Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO) took the witness stand next, continuing the testimony he began on Feb. 15. Drewrey”s testimony was interrupted before Rhoades began his cross-examination to accommodate several out-of-town witnesses.
Drewrey said there were boots seized from Dudney”s car and that the boots were sent to an outside agency for analysis because pieces of glass were found in their soles. The glass from the boots did not match the glass found on Greiner”s porch, Drewrey said.
A separate test also found that the boots” soleprints did not match the shoe mark found on Greiner”s front door, Drewrey said.
The detective later described visiting Greiner several times at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. About one week after the attack, Greiner identified a picture of Dudney among six individuals shown in a photograph lineup, calling Dudney by the moniker KTron, Drewrey said.
Greiner testified on Feb. 9 that he recognized one of the two attackers as a man he knew by the nickname KTron, who he met through Debbie James in spring 2009, and later pointed to Dudney when asked if KTron was present in the courtroom.
Drewrey said that Greiner could not identify the second attacker during any of the detective”s hospital visits.
LSCO correctional officer Tiffany Henderson, who is assigned to the Lake County Jail, was the third witness called Wednesday.
Henderson said that on Dec. 11, 2009 she conducted a search of a cell occupied only by Dudney and found writing scratched into the paint on the backside of the cell”s metal door.
“Misfits Forever” and a diamond outline with “1%” inside were written on the door, she said.
Under cross-examination, Henderson said there were other markings on the door and doorframe and that she did not know when the markings were placed on the door.
Jan Gritsch, a nurse and trauma program manager at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, was the final witness called Wednesday.
Gritsch said she was present when Greiner arrived at the trauma resuscitation room on Oct. 20, 2009 and medical personnel had chemically paralyzed that Greiner during the air transport to Santa Rosa.
Greiner was unconscious, unresponsive, had an elevated heart rate and was not breathing on his own upon arrival, Gritsch said.
Doctors identified two gunshot wounds to Greiner”s chest, one gunshot wound to the leg and one possible gunshot graze to the leg, Gritsch said. Greiner also had cuts to the legs, ankles, arms, head and face, severely swollen eyes, nasal fractures, three broken ribs and collapsed lungs on each side of the chest, she said.
Gritsch said Greiner was classified as a “critical patient” and “absolutely needed medical attention.”
Testimony concluded for the day just after 2:15 p.m. The trial is scheduled to reconvene today at 1:30 p.m. in Department 1. The prosecution is expected to rest its case later this afternoon.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
