GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man who lost part of his arm in a violent encounter with a gold miner in the mountains near the California border was the first to testify against the miner in an assault trial.
The Mail Tribune reports that 55-year-old Gregory Graybill described how an off-road excursion with friends turned into a confrontation with 63-year-old Ronald Spears, armed with a shotgun.
Spears is on trial in Josephine County Circuit Court in Grants Pass, just north of the remote area where Spears has been working his mining claim in the Illinois River valley.
Graybill testified Tuesday that Spears confronted him and some friends when they drove into an isolated campsite, screaming at them to get off his mining claim and firing shotgun rounds into the air.
