Jury to decide fate of man accused of running over festival-goer

PALMER — A jury is deciding whether a Trapper Creek man intended to kill a bluegrass festival attendee when he ran him over with a pickup nearly a year ago.

Rodney Humphrey, 49, reached the end of a five-day trial Tuesday. The incident in question happened in the early evening of Aug. 22, 2009, at last year’s Trapper Creek Bluegrass Festival. Humphrey was driving a black Ford Ranger pickup when he ran over Aaron Dorfman of Texas as Dorfman slept in a field.

Dorman survived, but not without serious injuries. Humphrey was charged with attempted murder, drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license.

His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Jeff Bradley, argued that the whole thing was an accident and Alaska State Troopers couldn’t prove his client was even drunk at the time, despite a breathalyzer test that showed Humphrey had more than twice the legal limit for driving in his system.

“The troopers arrived more than two hours after this event was supposed to have occurred,” Bradley said. Troopers found Humphrey at home, asleep. “How many drinks could Mr. Humphrey have had while he was at home?”

He said that Dorfman was sleeping next to an active roadway, which is not a very good idea.

Bradley noted the prosecution’s argument that Humphrey was upset that outsiders had invaded his corner of Trapper Creek and wanted to take out his anger on one of the revelers.

If that were the case, Bradley argued, why stop with just one?

“You had drunk and stoned hippies all over the place that could’ve been run over. Why the one little guy?” he asked the jury.

He called as a witness Humphrey’s father, Gary Humphrey, who testified that prior to the incident in Trapper Creek, his son had been in an accident and hadn’t been the same since. He doesn’t stay focused on tasks, has trouble listening to instructions and has poor coordination. He can’t work and gets around on a bicycle.

Humphrey’s demeanor in court bore that out — he seemed unsteady on his feet and unsure what to do when his attorney stood up or left the defense table.

For her part, Assistant District Attorney Alison Collins pointed to witness testimony that Humphrey had been at the festival that day, aggressively expressing his distaste for the revelers. She said Humphrey knew the field in which Dorfman slept was off limits to the festival-goers.

“Suddenly he found somebody that was in fact trespassing,” Collins told the jury. “He was going to make it his mission to take care of the problem.”

She also pointed to testimony from a witness who told Humphrey to stop driving and that he’d just run somebody over. That witness didn’t clearly recall exactly what Humphrey replied, but the gist of it was that he knew he’d run Dorfman over.

“The guy was trespassing. He didn’t belong there and I’m going to kill the rest of them too,” Collins said, summarizing what the witness related of Humphrey’s sentiments. “How much clearer of a statement could we have about his intents?”

As for the idea that sleeping in a field next to a road is a bad idea, Collins typified that as blaming the victim. “Is defense saying because you were taking a nap in a field you deserve to be run over?”

Humphrey’s jury deliberated Wednesday and Thursday and, as of press time, had not reached a verdict.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.