HUTCHINSON, Kan. — In the case against a 33-year-old Hutchinson man accused of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of violation of a protection from abuse order and misdemeanor battery, the jury handed down a mixed verdict.
They found Raymon Hunter guilty of the two protection from abuse counts, but not guilty of aggravated assault and misdemeanor battery.
The state had accused him of threatening Anthony Smith with a knife back on March 14, 2014, during an altercation where he was accused of making physical contact with Smith. He was convicted of violating the protection from abuse order on two occasions, the first on March 14 and the other on March 21, 2014.
Both sides see the case differently with the state alleging he put Smith in reasonable apprehension of bodily harm and that Hunter was the aggressor. But, the defense side of it was that Hunter never even had the knife in his hand and that it may have simply fallen out of his pocket. In any case, they say, the pocket knife was not open and he never came at the victim with the knife.
On the stand, the state was able to get the defendant to admit that he was violating the protection from abuse order when he made the contact with his ex-girlfriend. Hunter will be sentenced on those two protection from abuse counts in the next 30 days.