Statute of limitations cuts list: State revises rustling charges against Hughes for 2nd trial

A motion to amend the state’s charges against James Hughes, Endicott farmer and trucker who has been charged with stealing truckloads of grain from the Whitgro cooperative, was approved in a hearing Friday morning in Whitman County Superior Court. The Hughes case remains on the docket after a jury July 20 reported they were unable to come up with a verdict following a week-long trial.

After the hung jury outcome, Prosecutor Denis Tracy said he would continue prosecuting the case. Tracy last week filed a motion to again amend the charges against Hughes.

The revised charges list 21 counts which Tracy said contain all the alleged theft charges that the state can pursue. The revised 21 charges include a month-to-month listing starting with Aug. 18, 2009, and ending July 6 of last year.

The date for the new trial has been scheduled for Nov. 13.

During the July trial, the prosecution pointed out Hughes was suspected of hauling 160 loads of grain from Whitgro storage sites, where he had access as a contract trucker, and delivering them to river terminals under his own name. Hughes was actually charged with 19 specific counts of theft, but the state was allowed to present what they contend were the other episodes of theft to provide the jury with the overall scale of the alleged crimes.

In his motion to revise the charges, Tracy said he concluded Whitgro, the alleged victim, would not “be made whole” in the event the state eventually convicts Hughes and a restitution order followed based on the 19 actual theft counts.

Steven Graham, Republic attorney who represented Hughes in the trial, presented a defense four weeks ago which contended Hughes was being made the scapegoat for what Graham said was mismanagement at Whitgro. Graham arranged for Jacklyn Porter to represent Hughes at Friday morning’s hearing.

Tracy said after the hearing the revised 21-count charge against Hughes involves 86 separate alleged thefts. That total is less than the 160 loads alleged during the trial because the three-year statute of limitations applies.

The revised charges now include a month-to-month format with thefts alleged during time spans in each particular month. All of the charges except the last one involve first-degree theft.

The last charge is second degree theft on July 6, 2011, for a wheat load valued at more than $750 but under $5,000. The charge for July of last year was one of four in which the state alleges Hughes took grain on a single day of a specific month. The other single date per month allegations were Feb. 15, 2011; Dec. 10, 2010, and Aug. 18, 2009. All the other charges list alleged time spans in each particular month.

During the trial, Tracy and Senior Deputy Prosecutor Bill Druffel presented witnesses who described the grain delivery records which the state contends show the dates Hughes hauled loads of grain to river terminals owned by Almota Elevator Co. at Almota and Columbia Grain at Central Ferry.

The bottom line figures at the conclusion of the trial alleged Hughes had hauled 164 loads to Almota and Columbia at Central Ferry with four of the loads listed from his family farming operation at Endicott. Total value to the loads, less the value of the four Hughes family farm loads, was more than $1.13 million.

Friday’s filing is the third revision of the charges. The second amendment added the exceptional sentence allegations which contend the scope of the crimes, if proven, exceed the scale of loss anticipated in the state’s standard range sentencing grid. Each of the 21 charges in the third revision of the state’s charges again carries the exceptional sentence allegation.