Judge charges jury in the General Sessions Court

Finals arguments were completed, and the judge began to instruct the Oconee jury this afternoon on the law that applies to the case. A Westminster man, Phil Kerry Hamby, took the witness stand in defense of the charge of grand larceny. Arrested September 12, Hamby is accused of stealing galvanized steel pipe belonging to Ralph Crooks in the Earles Grove Community. Hamby’s attorney, Danny Day, insists that while his client may have gone to the location for the purpose of getting culvert pipe that he thought was throwaway pipe, he never got any because he did not have the equipment to haul it away. But prosecutor David Wagner quoted a neighbor as saying he saw pipe loaded on a flatbed trailer.