Mistrial for Trapper Creek man

PALMER — The trial of a Trapper Creek man accused of attempted murder for running over a concert attendee with his truck has ended in a mistrial.

Rodney Humphrey, 49, spent the better part of last week in trial and then awaiting the jury’s verdict. When they finally returned a verdict Friday, the jury members had deadlocked on all of the most serious counts he faced — attempted murder, assault and drunken driving — but did convict him for driving without a license and leaving the scene of an accident.

Superior Court Judge Vanessa White declared a mistrial on those deadlocked charges. The district attorney has until Thursday to decide whether to re-try Humphrey.

The case stems from Aug. 22, 2009, when Texas resident Aaron Dorfman, who had been attending the Trapper Creek Bluegrass Festival, took a nap in a field that was off-limits to revelers. Humphrey ran him over in a Ford Ranger pickup. Dorfman survived, but sustained serious injuries. Both sides at trial conceded all of these facts. What they argued about was whether Humphrey ran the man over on purpose or by accident.

The defense argued Humphrey didn’t mean to run Dorfman over, that Humphrey suffered from a brain injury that caused him to be easily distracted and uncoordinated. The defense also argued troopers couldn’t prove Humphrey was drunk when he ran over Dorfman because they took multiple hours to arrive on scene and Humphrey could have gotten drunk in the interim.

The prosecution argued that Humphrey saw the festival-goers as outsiders who didn’t belong in the corner of Trapper Creek where he spent a good portion of his time. He wanted them out. When he saw Dorfman, someone who was trespassing on that field, Dorfman became the focus of Humphrey’s rage.

The prosecution pointed to evidence from the festival-goer who had stopped Humphrey’s pickup. That witness told the jury that Humphrey had said he knew he’d run Dorfman over and he wanted to “kill the rest” of the partiers as well.

The defense heaped scorn on that argument, saying that if Humphrey had really wanted to hurt people he was in a target-rich environment. There were plenty of people he could have targeted at that festival and there was no reason for him to stop at just the one.

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