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Jurors in an attempted murder trial heard testimony from three live witnesses and saw the videotaped deposition of another witness Tuesday afternoon.
Criss Duncan, 45, of Shipshewana is facing attempted murder charges for allegedly shooting at Milford Town Marshal David Hobbs after robbing the National City Bank Leesburg Branch May 27, 2003.
In the longest testimony of the day, jurors watched the taped deposition of Ralph Berkey, Duncan's alleged accomplice. Berkey testified against Duncan as part of a plea bargain with the state and federal courts. Berkey and Duncan were tried and sentenced in federal court in the case for armed robbery .
Berkey explained that he and Duncan planned the Leesburg bank robbery, down to what they were going to wear and what weapons would be used. He said the pair originally planned to rob two banks the same day but changed their minds and chose the Leesburg bank because it was "out in the country."
The pair took two vehicles, a van and a truck, to a wooded area and then took the van to the bank so they could switch vehicles after the robbery. Once they robbed the bank and returned to the wooded area, they put their weapons, four AR-15 rifles modified to be automatic rifles, and the stolen money in the truck and burned the van.
Then the two men left in the truck and were traveling toward Milford on their way to Elkhart when they encountered Hobbs at the intersection of CRs 1050N and 200W.
Berkey said Duncan exchanged a few words with Hobbs on the road.
"The cop waved us down," said Berkey, who was crouching in the passenger side of the Chevrolet Z71 Silverado truck. "I heard them (Hobbs and Duncan) talking, but my face was pointed away."
Berkey said he knew Hobbs saw him, then Hobbs told Duncan to pull over and turn the truck off. Then Berkey sat up and tried to fire his gun, but "the rifle wasn't cocked ... so it didn't go off."
When Hobbs started to fire his gun, Duncan took off in the truck. After traveling about 100 yards, the truck slowed down.
"Chris handed me his rifle from between the seats," Berkey said. Then Duncan allegedly told him, "Get that son of a b****," referring to Hobbs.
Berkey said he shot out the back window of the truck and pulled the trigger of the gun three times, releasing about 200 rounds.
The pair fled and eventually ended up in Michigan, where they left the truck, hid the money and parted ways until the next day. The pair took Duncan's truck to Michigan to retrieve the money and later split the cash.
Duncan and Berkey were arrested four days later before they had a chance to get the truck in Michigan.
During cross examination, the jury heard that between 2000 and 2003, Berkey was involved in at least seven robberies in Elkhart, Middlebury and Bristol. Each of the robberies was similar to the one in Leesburg. However, the only one of those robberies Berkey said Duncan had a part in was at a credit union in Middlebury.
In other testimony, the jury heard Pamela Starkweather, the manager of the bank in Leesburg at the time of the robbery. Starkweather gave an account of what happened inside the bank during the robbery, but since the suspects were wearing masks, she could not identify them.
Kosciusko County Patrol Sergeant Chris McKeand testified that he arrived at the scene after the shots were fired and secured the scene. He said he collected "seven or so shell casings" near the intersection where the incident occurred.
That was McKeand's last contact with the case until he was asked to reconstruct the scene of the crime earlier this month. McKeand, who is an accident and crime scene reconstructionist, has spent more than 300 hours learning mapping and scale drawing and has produced more than 100 maps.
With help from Hobbs, McKeand made a scale drawing to reconstruct the scene of the incident on trial.
The other witness Tuesday was Rick McCumby, the former owner of the van used in the robbery. McCumby sold the maroon Dodge Caravan to Duncan for $1,000 a few weeks before the robbery.
The trial reconvened at 8:30 a.m. today as the prosecution continued its case.
