Expectations are that the jury trial of Steven Cobb should go to the jury this afternoon in regard to his being charged with criminal threat regarding an incident between him and 20-year-old oilfield worker Dustin Bozarth the afternoon of July 8, 2009. District Judge Hampton called a lunch recess after defense attorney Charles Herd finished questioning witness Brandon Siroky, production manager of Oil Producers of Kansas, around 11:50 a.m.
Herd told The Signal shortly after noon he expects to call at least one more witness for the defense before closing arguments, after which closing arguments by Herd and County Attorney Candace Lattin would send the matter to the 12-member jury. Hampton told The Signal the jurors could deliberate as late as “midnight tonight” if “they’re making progress.” The prosecution opened the trial yesterday and concluded this morning shortly after 10 a.m., the defense beginning presentation of its case around 10:30.
Asked during the lunch break if she felt good about the prosecution’s case thus far, Lattin nodded. Pratt County Assistant Attorney Gaten Wood is assisting her.
Cobb’s indiscretion centers around his having presented a .22 rifle and 12-gauge shotgun on the hood of his pickup the afternoon of July 8 as an allegedly threatening gesture toward Bozarth who was operating a trench-digging machine at the time, as part of laying a pipe line across the land Cobb farms, land that belongs to his mother, Doris.
Magistrate Judge Ann Dixson ruled at the conclusion of a daylong preliminary hearing last November enough evidence had been presented by Lattin to bind Cobb over for trial.
