LAKEPORT — The attorneys finished presenting testimony and a judge dismissed one of the 11 felony charges in the Thomas Loyd Dudney attempted murder trial Wednesday at the Lake County Courthouse.
Judge Arthur H. Mann presided. Deputy district attorney Art Grothe represented the Lake County District Attorney”s Office and attorney Doug Rhoades represented Dudney.
Mann ruled that there was insufficient evidence to put the felony charge of aggravated mayhem before the jury for deliberation and dismissed the charge. A count of regular mayhem remains among the 10 charges against Dudney.
The California Penal Code defines mayhem principally as the act of disfiguring or disabling the body part of another person, where as aggravated mayhem would be committing the act with the specific intent to permanently disfigure or disable the body part.
The jury had heard that both ears of the victim, Ronald Greiner, were partially detached as a result of an alleged attack at his Lakeport home behind the Record-Bee building. The prosecution alleges that Dudney was one of two men who shot, tortured and hogtied Greiner during the early morning hours of Oct. 20, 2009.
The remaining charges against the 60-year-old are attempted murder, simple mayhem, torture, robbery, burglary, three types of assault, battery causing serious bodily injury and participating in a criminal street gang, The Misfits.
Rhoades called Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO) detective John Drewrey as the second and final defense witness. Drewrey previously testified as a prosecution witness.
Drewrey reiterated that investigators established no exact time for the attack, saying it occurred sometime during the “early morning hours” of Oct. 20, 2009.
Drewrey also said that he showed Greiner two separate photograph lineups about one week after the attack. One of the lineups included a photograph of Dudney, and Greiner identified Dudney”s photograph as depicting his attacker, a man he knew only by the nickname KTron, Drewrey said.
Greiner testified on Feb. 9 that he recognized one of the two attackers as a man he knew only as KTron, whom he met several times in spring 2009, and later pointed to Dudney when asked if KTron was present in the courtroom.
Rhoades offered into evidence portions of the Oct. 22, 2009 Record-Bee front page, which featured an article about Dudney”s arrest and his mug shot, attempting to establish that Greiner would have known Dudney was a suspect before positively identifying him to law enforcement.
The admitted portions of the newspaper included the issue date, headline, photograph and caption. Mann ruled that portions of the article itself could not be admitted because it included outdated facts and investigation information not presented to the jury.
Grothe called two rebuttal witness. Both were Greiner”s sisters and said that they visited Greiner often during the time before he identified Dudney in the photograph lineup.
Both sisters testified that their brother did not have access to any Record-Bee issue depicting Dudney”s face, nor any other such reading material, while at the Santa Rosa hospital in the days following the incident. Most of that first week, Greiner could not open his eyes because of orbital swelling, both sisters said.
Mann released the jury for the day shortly after 10:15 a.m. Court reconvened out of the jury”s presence at 1:30 p.m. to address Rhoades”s request to have the jury visit the scene of the incident during night hours.
Greiner testified that he saw Dudney, who he knew as KTron, fire two shots at him the night of the attack. There were no lights on in the house but floodlights from a nearby car lot illuminated the house enough to make the attacker recognizable, Greiner said.
Mann denied Rhoades”s request, citing the practical difficulties of taking a jury to the scene at or after midnight and there was not sufficient evidence that the physical conditions at the scene (weather, lighting, foliage) one night this week would be the same as the night of the attack.
The trial is scheduled to reconvene today at 9 a.m. at the Lake County Courthouse.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
