A Cochise County judge has postponed a trial that was slated to begin next week in an aggravated assault case after the prosecutor expressed concern the defendant’s attorney is “so woefully unprepared” for trial that any guilty verdict would be overturned on appeal.
Arthur Lee Kuhn is one of three men indicted by a county grand jury in connection with a May 11, 2022, attack inside a Sierra Vista residence which left the victim with a broken eye socket and other injuries. At the time, the victim was doing remodeling work for the owner.
One of the co-defendants, Orion D’Shawn Kenneth Kidd, has already pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault of a “bound or otherwise physically restrained” victim. The second co-defendant, Mitchell James Bramhall, is set to be back in court next week for a possible change of plea hearing.
All three defendants have been prosecuted by Deputy County Attorney Terisha Driggs.
According to court records, Kidd and Bramhall entered the residence without permission and then carried out the attack with one of the men restraining the victim as the other punched him several time. The victim’s employer called 911 after arriving at the worksite and finding the bloodied victim.
The victim insists Kuhn, 35, did not come inside the house nor take part in the attack itself. But Kuhn faces the most serious charge, that of conspiracy for allegedly arranging the attack of the victim, with whom he was acquainted through Kuhn’s wife.
Kuhn is alleged to have been sitting in Bramhall’s vehicle outside the residence during the attack. He is also charged with one count of felony evidence tampering for his attempts to “destroy, mutilate, alter, conceal or remove physical evidence,” stemming from allegations he reportedly swallowed the SIM card from his cellphone when approached by police officers.
Kuhn’s jury trial was slated to begin Aug. 15 but it was rescheduled to later this year following a hearing last month on a motion to continue filed by Kuhn’s attorney, Perry Hicks.
Driggs initially opposed the postponement and told Judge Joel Larson at the July 13 heating that the victim did too, as “he wants a resolution.”
But during the hearing, Driggs told the judge she believes any guilty verdict obtained if the case went to trial in August would eventually be tossed out by the Arizona Court of Appeals because Kuhn could “rightly argue” a claim of ineffective assistance by his attorney.
Driggs also noted that with the start of the trial then only one month away, Hicks had not completed pretrial witness interviews. Among those who had not yet been interviewed were Kidd and Bramhall, she said.
The prosecutor also cited the fact defense counsel did not appear to have viewed the various police body cam videos, particularly of Kuhn’s own arrest.
With the trial delayed a few months, Hicks recently filed with separate motions challenging the grand jury indictment against Kuhn. The defense motions allege various due process problems with how a second indictment was secured nearly one year after the assault.
Those due process issues, according to Hicks, included the prosecutor not providing the grand jury with exculpatory information and failing to instruct the grand jury in a fair manner.
Larson is planning to use the days previously set aside for the trial next week to hear arguments on the motions.
Meanwhile, Kidd accepted a plea deal in May that guaranteed he would be placed on probation for his role in last year’s assault. The 23-year-old was formally sentenced July 3 and is eligible to request the conviction be designated as a misdemeanor if he successfully completes probation.
Bramhall, also 23, was offered his own plea deal in May. However, his privately retained attorney withdrew from the case soon after and it took until the end of June for a court-appointed attorney to be assigned to represent Bramhall.
An Aug. 14 review hearing is scheduled in Bramhall’s case at which time a change of plea could be entered or the parties could move forward with setting a trial date.