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Weekly hillcountryweekly.com
Thursday, January 21
Homeless man on trial
State of Texas vs James Chester Kemp Trial Christina Ryrholm Hill Country Weekly On Tuesday morning just prior to the voir dire process to select a jury the prosecutor and co-counsels for the defense informed District Court Judge Kirsten Cohoon that they would like to switch to a bench trial. This means that the judge is the one who will listen to and watch all the evidence, make all rulings on the objections and then make the determination of whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty. The trial started at 1:30 p.m. in the second floor large courtroom. For the State, Assistant Criminal District Attorney Erica Matlock was the prosecutor and for the defense Doug Burford and Kurt Rudkin were co-counsel.
The defendant, James Chester Kemp, was homeless at the time of his arrest and believed to be living in a camp area in the brush along Christus Parkway. He has a mother and three younger sisters all who live out of state. The alleged incident took place behind Church’s Chicken on January 5, 2019. There are three charges that are being tried simultaneously - bodily injury with a deadly weapon, threatening to assault a police officer and/or his family and while confined in jail the intent to assault the same officer. After opening arguments four witnesses, all law enforcement officers, were called. They set the scene with testimony, playing the 911 call by an employee who stated that her manager had been attacked and then body cam videos that
James Chester Kemp displayed the efforts to locate the perpetrator and the interview with the victim. The final witness was the arresting officer and his body cam captured the process of detaining and searching him.
That was the end of day one. On Wednesday morning the State resumed presenting their case with the victim testifying about the incident. Within an hour he had responded to the prosecutors questions as well as the cross examination by Kurt Rudkin. The next four witnesses again were four law enforcement officers. These were the lead detective on the case, the officer who transported him to the Boerne police department and the officer who transported him to the jail. This is the officer to whom the threats were made. The next witness testified and a body cam video was shown of a previous encounter in August 2018 with Kemp in a rebuttal to the defense’s comments that Kemp’s behavior in January 2019 was an
unusual one. The final witness testified to the disciplinary actions Kemp incurred while incarcerated. At this point the State rested their case. Defense wished to confer for fifteen minutes and then, anticlimactically, rested with no defense case. While the judge wanted to proceed with closing arguments the State asked that they begin this morning as her PowerPoint presentation was not complete. This request was granted. As The Weekly went to press Wednesday evening the end of the trial will not be known until later today. For a complete account of the proceedings be sure and read the January 28 issue.
