Prosecution to rest case in Wacht trial today

COOPERSTOWN, N.D. — After calling more than 30 witnesses since last Tuesday in the murder trial of Daniel Wacht, Griggs County State’s Attorney Marina Spahr said at noon today she would rest her case this afternoon.

Also during the noon break, defense attorney Steve Mottinger told court officers he would be “done tomorrow,” with presenting his witnesses.

That means the jury of five women and eight men — including one alternate — could get the case as early as late Tuesday.

Wacht, 31, is charged with AA felony murder, accused by prosecutors of shooting Kurt Johnson, 54, a Cooperstown native and North Dakota State University researcher, in the forehead from inches away with a 9-mm handgun.

Johnson last was seen about 9:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve 2010, very inebriated, outside the Oasis Bar here, being heaved by Wacht into Wacht’s van.

By Jan. 5, 2011, Johnson’s severed head was found buried in a dirt crawl space in the house Wacht rented with Russell Chamberlin. Both men worked at the same manufacturing plant in Cooperstown where Wacht was arrested that Jan. 5.

Several witnesses today testified Chamberlin was stuck in the snow near Glyndon, Minn., during the heavy snowstorm that hit the region that New Year’s Eve, as the prosecution sought to show he could not have been involved in Johnson’s death.

State District Judge James Hovey upheld an objection by Mottinger and denied Spahr’s attempt to have Carrie Swanson of Binford, N.D., testify she heard Wacht and her son Chamberlin talk about how Wacht had been ready to shoot a law enforcement officer who stopped them on their way to Swanson’s home in December 2010.

Wacht had an outstanding felony warrant from California and had been worried the traffic stop would lead to his arrest.

Hovey ruled the information was too prejudicial to Wacht and not germane enough, through such a hearsay manner, to allow the jury to hear it.

Benjamin Nelson, who owns a gun shop in Cooperstown, testified this morning he special-ordered a box of ammunition for “Danny Wacht” in late 2010, the same 9-mm Remington Golden Sabre hollow-points as the bullet state investigators say killed Johnson.

When the order came in, he called Wacht. “He was down there in two or three minutes to pick them up,” said Nelson of the Dec. 10, 2010 sale.

Because of his records, he could identify the box of bullets found in Wacht’s house as the same one he sold Wacht, Nelson testified.

Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237; (800) 477-6572, ext. 237; or send email to slee@gfherald.com

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