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Trial Transcripts
Prosecution Witness #4: Lionardo Arpero
THE COURT: You may proceed, Mr. Boening.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. BOENING:
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| Q |
Thank you. Please state you full name. |
| A. |
Lionardo Arpero. |
| Q |
Sir, how do you spell your first name and your last name. |
| A. |
L-i-o-n-a-r-d-o, A-r-p-e-r-o. |
| Q |
Sir, how old are you? |
| A. |
Nineteen. |
| Q |
What community do you live in? |
| A. |
Moorhead. |
| Q |
What do you do for a living, sir? |
| A. |
I’m a volunteer at the Restore. |
| Q |
Sir, I want to direct your attention to the evening of the 24th of June, 2006. Did you go out to the Red River Fairgrounds on the evening of that day? |
| A. |
Yes I did. |
| Q |
Who did you out to the fairgrounds with? |
| A. |
Juan Arpero and Jose Arpero. |
| Q |
And they were out there with their families, is that correct? |
| A. |
Yes. |
| Q |
What did you do out the fairgrounds that evening? |
| A. |
What did we do? |
| Q |
What did you do when you got there? |
| A. |
We were just walking around, you know. |
| Q |
Was there a point at which you went to the Midway area where the rides were? |
| A. |
Yes. |
| Q |
Was there an incident that took place when you and your brothers, and their wives, and their kids were out at the Midway area? |
| A. |
Yes. |
| Q |
What happened? |
| A. |
There was a fight basically, you know. I just seen my brothers getting jumped, so I went out there to help them out. |
| Q |
Which – let me take you a step back. Which brother did you see get jumped first? |
| A. |
My brother Juan. |
| Q |
And how may people were jumping Juan? |
| A. |
There was a big crowd, I would saw around fifteen to twenty people. |
| Q |
And when you say they were jumping him, what exactly were they doing to Juan? |
| A. |
Punching him and stuff like that, kicking him. |
| Q |
Could you see your brother Jose? |
| A. |
No, I did not see him. I didn’t really look around. |
| Q |
So, What did you do after you saw that your brother Juan was getting jumped? |
| A. |
I ran to the crowd to help him out, there was somebody on top of him punching him, so – |
| Q |
Did anything happen to you when you went to help your brother out? |
| A. |
Yes, I was punched in the back of the head, and thrown on the ground, and kicked – right here, and I must have been getting kicked in the leg too, because my leg was hurting bad. |
| Q |
Now you pointed – you said, “right here”, you pointed to your left eye brow, is that correct? |
| A. |
Yes. |
| Q |
Or actually below your eye brow, is that right? |
| A. |
Yeah, right here. |
| Q |
Did you suffer an injury there? |
| A. |
Yes, I had four stitches in it. |
| Q |
Any other injuries that you suffered? I think you mentioned your eye and your leg, is that correct? |
| A. |
Yeah and my leg. |
| Q |
Now, did you know the people who were attacking you? |
| A. |
No. |
| Q |
Had you seen them before? |
| A. |
No. |
| Q |
To the best of your knowledge, was there some sort of incident that took place between you or your family or members of your immediate family or extended family, and the other people who jumped your brother, Juan or jumped you? |
| A. |
No. |
| Q |
Any idea why they jumped you and Juan? |
| A. |
I’ve heard different things, so -- |
| Q |
But you have no personal knowledge of why – |
| A. |
No. |
| Q |
-- why they did that, is that correct? |
| A. |
That’s right. |
MR. BOENING: Nothing further.
THE COURT: Cross exam for the defense?
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. BRANDBORG:
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| Q |
Thank you. Mr. Arpero, you say that you saw Juan getting jumped first? |
| A |
Yes. |
| Q |
And you were twenty feet away from him when that occurred? |
| A |
Yeah, around there. |
| Q |
And how may people did you say – did they jump on him? |
| A |
No, I just – I seen my brother in a big crowd just moving to a side. |
| Q |
So then you closed that twenty feet as fast as you could? |
| A |
Yeah. |
MR. BRANDBORG: Nothing further, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Re direct for the State?
MR. BOENING: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: For the State of North Dakota, may this witness be excused?
MR. BOENING: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: For the defense, may this witness be excused?
MR. BRANDBORG: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Sir, you can step down, you’re free to go.
It is 2:58 in the afternoon right now, and we’re going to take our afternoon recess at this point and time.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I must warn you and I do at this point and time of your duty as jurors, not to converse among yourselves or with anyone else on any subject connected with the trial, and you must not form or express any opinion thereon until the case is finally submitted to you.
We’ll remain on the record with the parties remaining and the Defendant. We’ll rise and excuse the jury at this time for about a twenty minute break.
Please be seated. We have remained on the record, the jury has been excused from the courtroom, the courtroom door is shut. Mr. Brandborg is here, the Defendant’s here, the interpreters are here. And Mr. Boening I was just kind of curious as to what you were looking at as far as your case this afternoon. Any ideas?
MR. BOENING: What I want to try to call is Joanna Kjono, Tecola Sparks, Brandee Haas, and Cassandra Belgarde.
Those are the four persons who actually identified the Defendant as being present and participating in the riot. And then after that the State intends to call Deputy Kulesa. So it just depends how fast that moves, and frankly I think those witnesses are going to move fairly fast.
THE COURT: Thank you very much, anything further for the State at this point and time?
MR. BOENING: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: For the defense.
MR. BRANDBORG: No, Your Honor.
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