LIHU’E — Carrie Ann Robson will have to wait until at least Monday to learn her fate. She is being charged with attempted murder, among other charges, for trying to run down a homeless man with her truck on the
LIHU’E — Carrie Ann Robson will have to wait until at least Monday to learn her fate. She is being charged with attempted murder, among other charges, for trying to run down a homeless man with her truck on the night of Dec. 19 at the Hanalei Pavilion, on Kaua‘i’s North Shore.
The jury on Robson’s trial went into deliberation shortly before noon on Friday following closing arguments and 51 pages of jury instructions read by 5th Circuit Court Judge Randal Valenciano.
However, by the end of the day the jury did not return with a decision, prosecutor Melinda Mendes said. The jurors are expected to continue deliberating at about 8 a.m. on Monday.
Robson, 39, faces charges of second-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault and two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening. But the jury can find her guilty on a number of lesser-included charges on the first count that range from first- to third-degree assault.
The charges stem from Dec. 19, when homeless man Patrick Craig, 49, alleged Robson threatened him with a machete and then rammed him with her truck, causing him to break his left wrist.
Public Defender Christian Enright said his client never struck Craig that night at the Hanalei Pavilion. He also said Robson had pulled out a machete to ward off Craig’s sexual advances. Craig eventually took the machete away from Robson, and then called police dispatch.
“Patrick Craig has lied to everybody about this case from the moment he picked up the phone on Dec. 19,” Enright said. “He has no shame. He doesn’t feel bad about what he’s doing to her.”
Craig testified Wednesday that he had drank about 18 beers, smoked half of a marijuana joint and drank tea made with hallucinogenic mushrooms by the time Robson showed up at the pavilion to fix a friend’s tire. He also said he refused to share beer and weed with Robson because she “never puts out.”
Enright said other portions of Craig’s story don’t fit, including how Craig took the machete from Robson by using a military tactic he learned over a two-day period in 1978.
“He sounds like a ninja,” Enright said. “Does he look like a ninja?”
Enright suggested Craig injured himself while walking to the phone booth outside the pavilion because he was inebriated. Additionally, Craig should have had more injuries if Robson had rammed her truck into his back, as he claims.
“The story doesn’t add up,” Enright said. “That’s because it’s a lie.”
Mendes said calling Craig a liar hardly makes him one. He could have lied about taking mushrooms — which he said had no effect — but he didn’t.
“Why would he tell us that?” Mendes said. “Because it’s the truth. He told it like it was.”
Tapes of five 911 calls Craig made that night show he was fairly coherent and that Robson was angry with him for taking the machete away from her. One call includes a revving engine sound, before Craig hang up and called again to say he had an injured wrist.
Craig testified that Robson ran over his belongings before striking him in the back with the vehicle. She tried to run him down three times before driving off, he said.
However, defense witness Thomas Downey said Robson never went near Craig with the truck. He said Robson tried to take Craig’s bag — which Downey said he retrieved twice — and then drove off when she heard sirens.
Downey said he didn’t want to have anything to do with the scuffle, and was upset that Craig had taken away Carrie’s freedom.
Mendes said Downey spoke out against Craig because the man broke a basic rule of homeless society.
“Apparently, whatever happens at the pavilion, according to Mr. Downey’s logic, stays at the pavilion,” Mendes told the jury.
Enright disagreed.
“Tom (Downey) has no agenda,” he said. “He just wants to do the right thing.”
