It took a Colorado jury eight hours to issue a guilty verdict against a man accused of threatening a group of bicyclists and hammering one of their bikes with a bat.
The LovelandConnection.com reports the jury found the man guilty of criminal mischief and menacing. The jury reduced the criminal mischief charge to a Class 1 misdemeanor, while the menacing with a deadly weapon charge remained a Class 5 felony.
Prosecutor Josh Lehman said Bryce Baker, 24, of Berthoud could face one to three years in prison, although he said it's doubtful the judge would levy that harsh of a sentence. Lehman said he will seek restitution for the bicycle.
Two versions of incident
It took the jury eight hours to reach a verdict. They started Thursday afternoon, broke of the night, and started again Friday morning. They had to weigh widely different versions of the incident.
The three cyclists — Joe Stevens, 52, Alison Dickson, 51, and Mike Mettler, 58 — said they were riding on a county road south of Loveland when they claimed Barker drove past and yelled at them. They exchanged some heated words, and Barker pulled over and threatened them with a baseball bat. Later, they said he poked one of the cyclists with the bat and bashed his bicycle with it.
Barker claims that he carefully passed the cyclists and pulled over to make sure they were all right when one began waving his arms. An argument ensued, and one of the cyclists threw his bike at the car. Barker said he hit a bike with the bat to ward off the threatening cyclists.
Several witnesses testified who backed up both versions of the story.
See also “Bicycle quote: 'I'm sick and tired' of cyclists…. “
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