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Jury trial continues in shooting case
A rare Putnam County jury trial is expected to continue through Thursday before jurors begin deliberating the fate of Robert Eugene Young, 60, Cloverdale.
Testimony continued Tuesday for more than eight hours in the trial of Young, who is facing charges of attempted voluntary manslaughter and aggravated battery causing bodily injury as a result of the shooting of Jeffrey D. Perkins, a 59-year-old Greencastle contractor, in a dispute over equipment ownership and work done on Young’s property west of Cloverdale.
Perkins, who suffered a serious head injury as a result, 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 the dispute between the two men.
Putnam Circuit Court Judge Matt Headley is presiding over the case in the Old Circuit Courtroom (Superior Court) which better accommodates a 12-person jury such as the four women and eight men listening to the ongoing proceedings.
The state continued presenting its case Tuesday with Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter calling on Indiana State Police Crime Scene Investigator Sgt. James Cody after putting 1st Sgt. Jason Fajt on the stand Monday afternoon to detail the scene of the shooting.
The state is expected to call a couple more witnesses Wednesday morning before Young’s attorney, Jeff Boggess, begins presenting the case for the defense.
Among the highlights Tuesday, the jury saw pictures of St. Vincent Hospital CT scans of Perkins’ head wound as well as photos of the crime scene. The latter produced a lengthy sparring session between Cody and Boggess over how and why many of the measurements were or were not taken of the bullet hole in the rear window of Perkins’ truck, the position of his truck seat and how Perkins was turned when the lone bullet discharged in the incident struck him in the head.
Taking issue with some of the investigative measures concerning bullet trajectory and comparing them to a crime scene textbook he referred to repeatedly, Boggess suggested the procedures might put the crime scene report in doubt.
“I disagree,” CSI Cody calmly countered, noting a lack of perfect conditions for investigative aspects like measuring Perkins’ height while seated, which he was forced to during a visit to the hospital with two nurses holding the patient up.
“We’re talking about a very serious crime, we need to make sure everything is correct, right?” Boggess offered.
Some procedures were unnecessary or impossible to undertake at the time of the incident, Cody assured.
“At the scene, we weren’t sure Mr. Perkins was even going to live,” the ISP veteran said, adding that he was not immediately privy that night to some of the other investigative information gathered independently by detectives.
The trajectory of the bullet is at issue because the defense claims Young’s gun discharged as he was falling down after reportedly being bumped by Perkins’ Chevrolet Sierra 3500 pickup.
The crime scene report, however, does not agree with that characterization of the incident, as the state’s case pointed out.
Cody noted that he was told by a radiologist at St. Vincent that the bullet path was “a level shot through Mr. Perkins’ head.”
Under redirect questioning by Prosecutor Bookwalter, Cody was asked if a lack of perfect conditions for measuring Perkins at the hospital and the issues raised by the defense had changed his opinion of the shooting.
“Not at all,” Cody stressed.
Bookwalter asked what the findings of the shooting investigation were.
“The shot was fired from the right rear passenger corner (of Perkins’ truck),” Cody testified, “behind the scaffolding from a standing position.”
Testimony was to resume at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Superior Court courtroom.
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.