Pubdate: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 Source: News-Review, The (OR) Copyright: 2004 The News-Review Contact: http://www.newsreview.info Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2623 Author: John Sowell Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) MAN CONVICTED OF ASSAULTING MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWER A Myrtle Creek man was convicted last week of all four charges against him in the beating and robbery of a man growing medical marijuana. A jury of seven men and five women found Jeffry T. Lindenmeier, 19, guilty of first- and second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree assault. The jury deliberated about an hour and a half before reaching its decision Wednesday following a two-day trial. Lindenmeier, one of six men and teenage boys to be charged in the March 21, 2003, attack on Craig Hobbs, will be sentenced Aug. 13. Lindenmeier was the only one of the suspects whose case went to trial. The others pleaded to lesser charges that resulted in conviction on second-degree robbery in exchange for the other charges being dropped. Tom Bernier, who represented Lindenmeier, told the jury his client swung a bat that injured Hobbs. His client denied taking part in the robbery, however. Hobbs was surfing the Internet in the early-morning hours when some of the suspects broke through the door of his manufactured home in Tri City. Lindenmeier, who like the others who entered the home was wearing a mask, struck Hobbs in the face. Some of the other suspects grabbed three of the four marijuana plants Hobbs was growing in a back bedroom to provide relief for a degenerative back disease. Sheriff's deputies followed a trail of marijuana leaves back to a nearby residence, where several of the suspects went following the attack. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake