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Second day of Longbotham trial produces evidence of drinking, victim's near death |
Midland Reporter-Telegram
10/19/2005
By Bob Campbell
Staff Writer
Midland High School senior Brett Ledford Tuesday testified he had only been outside a T&T Donuts shop for about 10 minutes, lending his two Air Soft pistols to a session of parking lot hijinks, when his friend Jared Longbotham inexplicably shot him in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Looking reticent and perplexed, the 18-year-old victim said he has rejoined the MHS Bulldogs football team but has not regained his former athleticism.
"How is your upper body strength?" asked First Assistant District Attorney Teresa Clingman.
"It's better but not the same," the 6-foot-5-inch, 215-pound youth said. "I get tired quickly. I can't run."
Ledford said he no longer considers Longbotham a friend since being splattered with more than 100 lead pellets just before 9 p.m. March 11 outside the T&T at Garfield Street and West Wadley Avenue. "I remember being on the ground, spitting up blood, and waking up in the hospital with tubes down my throat," he said.
"They cut me open to look at my organs and broke a rib to see my heart. I just wonder why I got shot." He said he was in the hospital for 13 days and in intensive care for eight.
Indicted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Longbotham could be sentenced to two to 20 years in state prison if found guilty. He is eligible for probation.
Dr. Russell Sawyer, the Midland Memorial Hospital thoracic surgeon who operated on Ledford, told the six-man, six-woman 238th District Court jury that pellets perforated the victim's kidney and liver and collapsed the lower lobe of his right lung. Sawyer said Ledford even had size 7 1/2 pellets in his pelvis and none of the lead was removed.
"We knew he was hemorrhaging because of the low blood pressure," said the doctor. "He had holes in his liver, but the bleeding was not profuse. His kidney was perforated but it was still working."
Sawyer said he reinflated Ledord's lung and the youth greatly benefitted from prompt treatment. "Had Brett not received medical care, he would not have survived," the surgeon said.
Ledford's father Leonard testified he had been to Dos Compadres restaurant with his wife and Brett, his youngest child, returning home about 8:20 p.m. before the teen went out. Upon being called to the scene at 9:20 p.m., the elder Ledford said, "An officer told me the driver of (Brett's) pickup was the victim of a gunshot.
"When we got to the hospital, a crisis interventionist came in and I thought he was dead. Then a doctor told us he was near death."
Wearing closely-cropped blond hair, the now 19-year-old defendant listened with his attorneys, Hal Brockett and Ray Fivecoat, as other young men gave their accounts.
Corbin Rutter, now a Midland College freshman, said he arrived with Matt Buckley before Jaret Bush and Alex Hurt got the Air Soft pistols from Ledford's pickup and started peppering them with plastic pellets. "We told them to stop and rolled the windows up," said Rutter.
When the shotgun went off and Ledford collapsed, he said, "I hit the ground and pulled Matt down. I thought it was a drive-by."
Bush said neither Ledford nor Longbotham took part in the Air Soft hijinks, but he noticed Longbotham "messing with something" in his pickup and saw the shotgun when he ran by. "I saw him point the shotgun and saw him pull the trigger," said Bush.
"He was serious. He didn't have a smile on his face."
Bush said he knew Longbotham had been drinking because he had "smelled beer on his breath."
Midland Police Department Identification Officer Marty Barrett reported interviewing witnesses and calculating Longbotham stood 36 feet, 10 inches, from Ledford when the shot was fired.
Barrett said he found a plastic bag full of Coors Light beer cans in Longbotham's pickup and removed a green toolbox with 164 Winchester 12-gauge shotgun shells. He said a "wad round," or one with the pellets removed, was in the shotgun's magazine and ready to be loaded into the chamber.
MPD Det. Ricardo Candelaria told Brockett he filed the second-degree felony charge against Longbotham, saying he was satisfied with Det. Mark Wohleking's report that the defendant had fired the shot.
Wohleking testified Longbotham admitted having drunk beer that night but that he did not look intoxicated.
MPD Sgt. Scott Casey, a firearms expert, told the jury No. 7 1/2 shot is relatively small and is designed to kill quail and doves.
Veronica Corral, an Amigo's Convenience Store clerk from next door to the T&T Donuts, was outside when she heard the shot. Momentarily losing her composure, Corral said, "I heard a very loud bang.
"I saw a young gentleman rolling around in a fetal position, holding himself. Then I saw another young gentleman walking toward him. He said, 'He's fine, he's OK, don't worry about him.'
"I didn't think he was OK if he was rolling around."
Corral said she returned to the store, locked it and called city police, who arived five minutes later.
http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15411788&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475626&rfi=6
Midland Reporter-Telegram
10/19/2005
By Bob Campbell
Staff Writer
Midland High School senior Brett Ledford Tuesday testified he had only been outside a T&T Donuts shop for about 10 minutes, lending his two Air Soft pistols to a session of parking lot hijinks, when his friend Jared Longbotham inexplicably shot him in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Looking reticent and perplexed, the 18-year-old victim said he has rejoined the MHS Bulldogs football team but has not regained his former athleticism.
"How is your upper body strength?" asked First Assistant District Attorney Teresa Clingman.
"It's better but not the same," the 6-foot-5-inch, 215-pound youth said. "I get tired quickly. I can't run."
Ledford said he no longer considers Longbotham a friend since being splattered with more than 100 lead pellets just before 9 p.m. March 11 outside the T&T at Garfield Street and West Wadley Avenue. "I remember being on the ground, spitting up blood, and waking up in the hospital with tubes down my throat," he said.
"They cut me open to look at my organs and broke a rib to see my heart. I just wonder why I got shot." He said he was in the hospital for 13 days and in intensive care for eight.
Indicted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Longbotham could be sentenced to two to 20 years in state prison if found guilty. He is eligible for probation.
Dr. Russell Sawyer, the Midland Memorial Hospital thoracic surgeon who operated on Ledford, told the six-man, six-woman 238th District Court jury that pellets perforated the victim's kidney and liver and collapsed the lower lobe of his right lung. Sawyer said Ledford even had size 7 1/2 pellets in his pelvis and none of the lead was removed.
"We knew he was hemorrhaging because of the low blood pressure," said the doctor. "He had holes in his liver, but the bleeding was not profuse. His kidney was perforated but it was still working."
Sawyer said he reinflated Ledord's lung and the youth greatly benefitted from prompt treatment. "Had Brett not received medical care, he would not have survived," the surgeon said.
Ledford's father Leonard testified he had been to Dos Compadres restaurant with his wife and Brett, his youngest child, returning home about 8:20 p.m. before the teen went out. Upon being called to the scene at 9:20 p.m., the elder Ledford said, "An officer told me the driver of (Brett's) pickup was the victim of a gunshot.
"When we got to the hospital, a crisis interventionist came in and I thought he was dead. Then a doctor told us he was near death."
Wearing closely-cropped blond hair, the now 19-year-old defendant listened with his attorneys, Hal Brockett and Ray Fivecoat, as other young men gave their accounts.
Corbin Rutter, now a Midland College freshman, said he arrived with Matt Buckley before Jaret Bush and Alex Hurt got the Air Soft pistols from Ledford's pickup and started peppering them with plastic pellets. "We told them to stop and rolled the windows up," said Rutter.
When the shotgun went off and Ledford collapsed, he said, "I hit the ground and pulled Matt down. I thought it was a drive-by."
Bush said neither Ledford nor Longbotham took part in the Air Soft hijinks, but he noticed Longbotham "messing with something" in his pickup and saw the shotgun when he ran by. "I saw him point the shotgun and saw him pull the trigger," said Bush.
"He was serious. He didn't have a smile on his face."
Bush said he knew Longbotham had been drinking because he had "smelled beer on his breath."
Midland Police Department Identification Officer Marty Barrett reported interviewing witnesses and calculating Longbotham stood 36 feet, 10 inches, from Ledford when the shot was fired.
Barrett said he found a plastic bag full of Coors Light beer cans in Longbotham's pickup and removed a green toolbox with 164 Winchester 12-gauge shotgun shells. He said a "wad round," or one with the pellets removed, was in the shotgun's magazine and ready to be loaded into the chamber.
MPD Det. Ricardo Candelaria told Brockett he filed the second-degree felony charge against Longbotham, saying he was satisfied with Det. Mark Wohleking's report that the defendant had fired the shot.
Wohleking testified Longbotham admitted having drunk beer that night but that he did not look intoxicated.
MPD Sgt. Scott Casey, a firearms expert, told the jury No. 7 1/2 shot is relatively small and is designed to kill quail and doves.
Veronica Corral, an Amigo's Convenience Store clerk from next door to the T&T Donuts, was outside when she heard the shot. Momentarily losing her composure, Corral said, "I heard a very loud bang.
"I saw a young gentleman rolling around in a fetal position, holding himself. Then I saw another young gentleman walking toward him. He said, 'He's fine, he's OK, don't worry about him.'
"I didn't think he was OK if he was rolling around."
Corral said she returned to the store, locked it and called city police, who arived five minutes later.
http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15411788&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475626&rfi=6
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