Jury hearing scaffold dispute shooting case

A Putnam Circuit Court jury of eight men and four women Monday began hearing testimony in the trial of a 60-year-old Putnam County man charged with shooting an acquaintance with whom he had a “run-in” on his property north of Interstate 70 along State Road 243.

Robert E. Young -- who characterized the March 25, 2016 incident as “a mess” at least twice during a one-hour, 15-minute videotaped interview with Indiana State Police investigators shown to jurors Monday afternoon -- has been charged with attempted voluntary manslaughter and aggravated battery causing bodily injury.

Those charges comes as a result of the shooting of a 59-year-old Greencastle contractor in a dispute over equipment and work done on Young’s property west of Cloverdale.

Jeffrey D. Perkins, who suffered a serious head injury, is reportedly still in a nursing care facility. Prior to the shooting incident, he had done roofing work at the Young residence that became the focal point of an earlier “run-in” between the two men.

The trial, which is expected to run through at least Wednesday afternoon, is going on in front of Putnam Circuit Court Judge Matt Headley in the Superior Court courtroom in order to be able to properly seat a jury.

Young is facing a maximum of 46 years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Attempted voluntary manslaughter, a Level 2 felony, is punishable by 10-30 years in prison, while aggravated battery causing bodily injury, a Level 3 felony, is punishable by 3-16 years in prison.

During opening arguments, Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter told the jury the evidence will show Young intentionally fired the 9mm handgun that wounded Perkins, while defense attorney Jeffrey Boggess countered that evidence will illustrate his client intended to fire a warning shot but was bumped by Perkins’ truck, causing the trajectory of the bullet to be altered and go through the rear window, striking Perkins.

Boggess told the jury Perkins knew that he was “coming on Young’s property uninvited at a time (approximately 3:45 p.m.) when most people are not home” and was “possibly trying to kill my client with his truck.”

Ostensibly Perkins was attempting to retrieve a disputed set of scaffolding which, by several accounts, had been left on Young’s property for more than three years.

Boggess said Perkins was “repeatedly told to leave” the rural property. On video Young repeatedly said Perkins was not going to leave his property with the scaffolding, which he had held onto because of what he alleged to be unfinished and unsatisfactory work on his roof.

The defendant said he ordered Perkins never to return to his property after the contractor allegedly failed to fix three leaks in the roof following the initial work he did.

Meanwhile, Bookwalter said testimony from a State Police CSI investigator as well as the videotaped interview with Young shown Monday and a dashboard camera video taken at the scene -- reportedly including the defendant’s alleged comment “I tried to kill the son of a bitch” -- will substantiate Young’s guilt.

Young admitted blocking Perkins’ truck in with his own dump truck and then placing a concrete block about 15-20 feet behind the contractor’s truck and sitting atop it while telling Perkins he was not letting him leave with the scaffolding.

When Perkins reportedly revved his engine and the truck started to roll toward Young, he said he bailed out, pulling the handgun from his pocket as he dove off the block, and it then discharged.

”I didn’t want to shoot him,” Young said in the taped interview, indicating he would have been “happy with him going to jail.”

State Police 1st Sgt. Jason Fajt, a Putnamville criminal investigator, testified about the video interview conducted with Young that night of the incident.

Boggess noted that Young first brought a .22 caliber rifle out but never pointed it at Perkins or his passenger, Charles Masters.

“He had the opportunity to use the squirrel gun on these two individuals,” Boggess said, noting that the defendant later retrieved a handgun and put the rifle back in the barn. “At this point, Robert Young had not taken any aggressive action.”

Fajt rejected that notion.

“I would say he took an aggressive and intimidating action by carrying a .22 rifle,” the veteran ISP detective said.

But that did not stop Perkins from continuing to load up the scaffolding, Boggess said.

“The only one taking aggressive action at this point,” the defense attorney added, “is Jeffrey Perkins.”

Fajt objected to that assessment as well.

“I would disagree with that,” he said.

Testimony is due to resume at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Superior Court courtroom.