With the trial of James Huffman IV in its 10th day, and after seven days of prosecution witness testimony, the prosecution rested Friday, declaring that they have been successful in proving that Huffman is guilty of murdering 24-year-old Michael Hogg.
But the last few hours of the prosecution’s portion of the case was not without contention.
On Thursday, cell phone records were called into question by the defense. On Friday, those phone records were again called into question when a Kentucky State Police detective who investigated the case could not answer a question about time stamps on phone records and their correlation with time stamps on surveillance video.
Special Letcher Circuit Judge Kent Hendrickson ruled that the phone records could not be compared with surveillance video time stamps due to a lack of an understanding for how the two correlated.
Other aspects of the case were also discussed, and the jury was shown the alleged murder weapon, a silver knife with a black handle.
After the prosecution rested, Judge Hendrickson excused the jury for the weekend. After the jury was excused, defense attorney Robert right, made a motion for acquittal for Huffman, arguing that the commonwealth had failed to present sufficient enough evidence that the jury could possibly find Huffman guilty of murder. He then made a motion for a mistrial in the case, based upon the lack of a change of venue for the murder trial.
Both motions were overruled by Judge Hendrickson, who said there was sufficient enough evidence for the case to be handed over to the jury.
The trial will now shift to the defense calling witnesses, which is expected to begin Monday morning.
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