TRIAL BEGINS FOR ATTACK ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA USER

A sheriff's deputy testified Tuesday that he followed a trail of
marijuana leaves from the scene of a brutal attack last year on a Tri
City man to a home where several of the suspects in the case were
later found.

Deputy Jason Zanni said the attackers carried off a marijuana plant
from the home of Craig Hobbs, the victim in the case. As they ran, the
plant shed leaves and stems that investigators were able to use to
track to another home, located around the corner about 100 yards from
Hobbs' residence.

The testimony came during the first day of the trial of Jeffry T.
Lindenmeier, 19, of Myrtle Creek. He was charged with first- and
second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree
assault in the March 21, 2003, attack on Hobbs.

Altogether, three men and three boys -- all from Myrtle Creek -- were
charged in the attack. The other five pleaded to lesser charges that
resulted in their convictions on second-degree robbery in exchange for
the other charges being dropped. Only Lindenmeier chose to go to trial.

Cole D. Carter, then 18, who drove a car to the scene and back, and
lookouts Shane R. Rinehart and Niclas W. Ware, both then 17, were
placed on probation.

Two other defendants, who like Lindenmeier, were accused of bursting
into the house, were sentenced to prison. Buford T. Harper, then 16,
was sentenced to nearly six years, while Joshua W. Lampton, then 19,
was sentenced to nearly three years.

Tom Bernier, the attorney representing Lindenmeier, told the jury his
client was guilty of the assault, in which Hobbs was struck numerous
times by a masked assailant wielding a baseball bat. Bernier said
Lindenmeier denied involvement in the robbery or in any conspiracy.

Hobbs was surfing the Internet on his computer in the early morning
hours when the suspects broke through the locked door of his
manufactured home.

"The door flew open and I saw someone standing there with a mask. The
next thing I knew, I got hit with the baseball bat," Hobbs told the
jury of seven men and five women. "I got hit in the face. My glasses
flew off and I couldn't see."

Hobbs, who suffers from a degenerative back disorder, has a card that
allows him to legally grow and use personal amounts of marijuana to
ease his pain. The attackers stole three of the four plants he had
growing in one of his bedrooms. He estimated they got away with three
ounces of usable marijuana, worth between $800 and $1,200.

The trial is expected to conclude today.