The fate of a 41-year-old Gilroy man will be in the hands of 12
San Benito County residents as the Robert Orabuena trial goes to
the jury Friday morning.
The prosecution and the defense are scheduled to deliver their
closing arguments and turn the case over to the jury for a final
verdict.
The fate of a 41-year-old Gilroy man will be in the hands of 12 San Benito County residents as the Robert Orabuena trial goes to the jury Friday morning.
The prosecution and the defense are scheduled to deliver their closing arguments and turn the case over to the jury for a final verdict.
“The defense has rested and is satisfied with the state of the case and is confident in a jury of this county to reach the right decision,” Orabuena’s defense attorney Arthur Cantu said.
Deputy District Attorney Denny Wei declined to comment on the end of testimony or any aspect of the case.
Attorneys for both sides are expected to deliver a closing argument to the jury at about 9:30 a.m. Superior Court Judge Alan Hedegard will then provide jury instructions to the 12-member panel and send them off to deliberate.
Jurors in the misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter trial were treated to a lesson in physics as expert witnesses battled it out from the witness stand today.
Steve Neumann of the California Highway Patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) testified as an expert witness for the prosecution, while Eric Deyerl, a highly-respected mechanical engineer who specializes in accident reconstruction, testified for the defense.
Relying on the same physical evidence, the two experts came up with different versions of the same event.
Using a computer generated slide presentation, Neumann testified that on July 4, Orabuena cut short his turn into a driveway at 6970 Fairview Road and drove into the path of a 2002 Harley-Davidson V-Rod ridden by Joseph Judnick, 48, of Salinas.
Neumann also testified that as Judnick tried to stop the V-Rod, the motorcycle went down on its side and slid front-tire first into the front passenger wheel of Orabuena’s 1987 Dodge mini-van, swinging the rear wheel of the motorcycle so hard into the mini-van it lifted the vehicle and spun it around nearly 90 degrees.
Deyerl, agreed with much of what Neumann had to say except he came to the conclusion that the front tire of the V-Rod struck the rear of the mini-van, with the upper half of the high-performance Harley striking the middle and front end of the Dodge.
