By Kathee Baird

Marjorie Crawford four days after she was hit with weed eater

Galena, Mo.-  A woman from Branson West accused of running down her neighbor last year was found not guilty by a jury today in Stone County.

Prosecutors charged Marjorie Irene Crawford with two counts of assault, two counts of armed criminal action and DWI following the May 29th incident.  One count of assault and the armed criminal action charges were dismissed prior to this weeks trial.

Jennifer Richardson told jurors that Marjorie backed down her driveway on North Tracy Lane at a high rate of speed and slammed the car into her husband, Craig, who was weed eating part of Crawford’s property about 9 p.m. Craig Richardson said he broke the window out of Crawford’s vehicle with the weed eater after “she said something like get her or hit her” and he took that to mean his wife or daughter.  Richardson testified at Crawford’s preliminary hearing that he smashed the car window and hit her with the gardening tool after Crawford “said she was going to kill Jen.”-

Crawford, who admitted to drinking several beers throughout the day, says after she was attacked she went inside her home and downed 6 oz. of vodka and waited for help to arrive.  A criminalist with the Highway Patrol testified that Crawford’s BAC was .166…over twice the legal limit– when it was drawn about an hour after the incident.

Craig Richardson told jurors he only hit Crawford one time with the gardening tool.  However, Crawford told jurors that he hit her in the arm earlier during a dispute over where Crawford was planting trees on her property.  Crawford said she was planting the trees because she was tired of the Richardson’s and their guests parking on her property. “He said have you ever had the s**t beat out of you by a man before lezzie girl before he hit me.”

Assistant Prosecutor John Taylor introduced several photos of Crawford’s facial injuries to jurors, but not one that showed significant injuries to Crawford’s shoulder and arm.

That seemed to be one of the issues that raised doubt for jurors.  As they were exiting the courtroom I asked the foreperson what the tipping point for them was.

“We had a couple of nurses on the jury,” she said.  “We looked at the medical records and came to the conclusion that she could not have suffered the kind of injuries she did from one blow with the back end of the weed eater.  If he was willing to lie about only hitting her once, what else was he lying about."