Burn victim opens trial testimony

A woman badly scarred opened the prosecution’s part of the Oconee General Sessions Court trial, in which the woman’s husband is accused of pouring gasoline onto his wife and setting her afire. Deputy Solicitor David Wagner predicts the jury will find Jacob Drotning guilty on all four charges, even though there is a lot that the accuser, Katherine Cook, does not remember about what happened in 2014. The two are now divorced. The jury heard Cook tell about how the couple re-located from Minnesota to the Seneca area so that Drotning could pursue a job as an auto mechanic, but that relations between the two soured as they sank into financial debt unable to pay rent and meet other expenses. Assistant Solicitor Lindsey Simmons zeroed in on a May night two years ago when Cook, her arms glowing in fire, ran to a neighbors home for help. There was testimony about a gas can which Drotning had used for the empty tank in the couple’s car. Cross-examined by defense attorney Lee Cole, Cook said she could not say whether Drotning poured gasoline on her and lit her on fire, but on direct examination she had said he was the one she saw standing there without a look of concern on him.