The jury after eight and a half hours of deliberations found a Hutchinson man guilty of two counts of aggravated battery, aggravated burglary and aggravated assault. Troy Bell was found “not guilty” of attempted murder.
Bell was charged in the case where six men allegedly went to the home of Jeffrey Payne with most breaking in and physically attacking and stabbed the victim numerous times in the leg and torso at his home at 633 East 4th. Bell is believed to have been one of the men involved in the attack which occurred on took place back on February 18, 2013.
The motive for the attack is over an incident where the mother of the two co-defendants Joseph and Jordon LeShore was slapped. That led to the six men going to Payne’s home and attacking him. Ironically, he’s not even the person who allegedly attacked the LeShore brothers mother.
Others accused of being involved in the attack include John Cantu, the LeShore brothers, Sean Arevalo-Mendoza and Desmund Cantu.
Desmund Cantu has already been convicted and is serving 7-years, while Joseph LeShore was recently allowed to withdraw his plea to attempted 2nd degree murder and will now face trial on a charge of attempted 1st degree murder as well as other charges.
Joseph LeShore who had been awaiting sentencing for sometime after he entered a plea to an amended charge of attempted 2nd degree murder, as well as aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and aggravated battery. He at that time admitted in court his involvement in the beating and stabbing of Payne.
He then contended that he felt coerced into entering the plea by his then attorney Alice Osburn. So Judge Tim Chambers allowed him to withdraw his plea on the attempted 2nd degree murder charge, which means he’ll face trial for the original charge of attempted 1st degree murder as well as the other charges.
With the verdict handed down in the case against Troy Bell, Judge Tim Chambers set sentencing for April 11, at 10:30 a-m.