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Opening statements started Wednesday in the trial of Butch Dwight Smith, the 51-year-old resident accused of assaulting a 65-year-old man at a Castle Rock gas station in 2023.
With the podium directly facing him, Cowlitz County Prosecuting Attorney Anthony Carlow addressed the jury, selected from a pool of more than 60 candidates then culled to 13.
He said prior to the physical fight at the gas station, Willard A. Dyrland Jr. of Castle Rock was driving north on Interstate 5 toward Castle Rock when he was cut off by a white Toyota truck driven by Smith, also of Castle Rock.
The defendant later brake-checked him near the exit ramp, forcing Dyrland to slam on his brakes to avoid a rear-end collision, Carlow said.
"He was followed, chased by the defendant Butch Smith," he said.
Once Dyrland arrived at the Shell station at 1178 Mt. St Helens Way, Smith drove past him and parked, Carlow said. Dyrland then exited his vehicle and said to Smith, "What did I do to piss you off?"
It was at that moment when the first punch was thrown, knocking Dyrland to the ground, Carlow said. When he stood up again, he was struck again.
Carlow said he will present witnesses, including one who recorded a 16-second video from across the street at Papa Pete's Pizza. The video reportedly caught only one second of the altercation. Still, he said the state will present a photo of that moment in time.
He said the jury also will hear from an employee who reported hearing a commotion and claimed to have seen Smith standing over Dyrland, as well a doctor who treated Dyrland and a police officer.
"Stop attacking me," was the phrase the store employee heard Smith say to Dyrland, according to Smith's attorney, Timothy Carroll Rusk of Tim Rusk Attorneys, based in Tacoma.
But, Rusk said in his opening remarks, the employee neither witnessed what started the altercation, nor the interaction on the freeway before the both of them arrived at the gas station.
Rusk said the Shell station has surveillance cameras,
but none that record footage to view later.
Rusk noted that prosecutors plan to call the the doctor who treated Dyrland on the day of the encounter but not two separate radiologists who diagnosed him with the fractures.
According to the police report, on May 24, 2023, an officer with the Castle Rock Police Department responded to the Shell gas station concerning an assault.
Upon arrival, Dyrland told police he was assaulted by a man later identified as Smith. Dyrland described the incident as an "unprovoked road rage incident," during which he was struck at least twice and sustained six fractures to his right cheekbone and eye socket.
A Castle Rock Police officer obtained imagery of the suspect's license plate of the vehicle that Smith as well as a photo of him. In the police report, the officer writes he was able to identify Smith with an old booking photo.
