MAN CONVICTED OF ASSAULTING MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWER

A Myrtle Creek man was convicted last week of all four charges against
him in the beating and robbery of a man growing medical marijuana.

A jury of seven men and five women found Jeffry T. Lindenmeier, 19,
guilty of first- and second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit
robbery and second-degree assault. The jury deliberated about an hour
and a half before reaching its decision Wednesday following a two-day
trial.

Lindenmeier, one of six men and teenage boys to be charged in the
March 21, 2003, attack on Craig Hobbs, will be sentenced Aug. 13.

Lindenmeier was the only one of the suspects whose case went to trial.
The others pleaded to lesser charges that resulted in conviction on
second-degree robbery in exchange for the other charges being dropped.

Tom Bernier, who represented Lindenmeier, told the jury his client
swung a bat that injured Hobbs. His client denied taking part in the
robbery, however.

Hobbs was surfing the Internet in the early-morning hours when some of
the suspects broke through the door of his manufactured home in Tri
City. Lindenmeier, who like the others who entered the home was
wearing a mask, struck Hobbs in the face.

Some of the other suspects grabbed three of the four marijuana plants
Hobbs was growing in a back bedroom to provide relief for a
degenerative back disease.

Sheriff's deputies followed a trail of marijuana leaves back to a
nearby residence, where several of the suspects went following the
attack.