Jury to Decide if Man Crashed in Road Rage or Justified Pursuit

Closing arguments wrapped up the third day of the Barnhart trial, in which Robert Allen Barnhart is accused of repeatedly ramming a teen driver in a fit of road rage.

Barnhart is facing two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one misdemeanor count of battery if found guilty .

“This is a clear example of road rage, Deputy District Attorney Kristin Bracic, told the jury. " Look at his pattern of anger and conduct in this case. It goes to his intent, his character.…He was not calm, He was in a complete state of red road rage."

The charges Barnhart faces are from events that followed after he was rear ended on Nov.5, 2011 by then 18-year-old Jesse Ochoa, who was driving without a license or insurance.

The felony charges stem from two alleged accidents, and the misdemeanor  is for a physical altercation that followed, when Barnhart allegedly got out of his truck and grabbed Ochoa, ripping his shirt and shaking him around.

In Barnhart’s testimony given on Tuesday, he denied the allegations despite six eye-witness called by the prosecution to testify otherwise. Barnhart argued he followed Ochoa in order to enact a citizen’s arrest.

“My client was trying to do what the law permitted him to that day,” defense attorney Mike Perez told the jury. “He is not guilty.”

Under the law, a citizen may use reasonable force to detain another citizen if they are committing a public offense.

“Jesse Ochoa made the decision to drive that morning,” said Perez. “He just hoped he wouldn’t get caught.”

But Bracic said that this is not Barnhart’s first altercation with anger management, violence and driving. He was convicted of corporal punishment inflicted on a spouse back in 1994 and, more recently in 2010, was found guilty of battery when he threw hot coffee onto another driver.

Bracic told the jury to consider the state of mind in which both Ochoa and Barnhart were acting. She also reminded them that Ochoa was not the one being tried.