Drotning trial heads into second day

The Jacob Drotning trial resumes at 9:30 this morning at the Oconee Courthouse.  Opening testimony came yesterday from the former Minnesotan’s accuser—his ex-wife, Katherine Cook, now a resident of Georgia.  Wearing the scars of someone who was burned over more than half of her body, Cook told the jury that since her injuries she spent four months in a medically-induced coma, underwent 49 surgeries, and accumulated medical bills in excess of $10 million dollars.  Though she could not say she saw Drotning pour gasoline onto her and set her on fire in May 2014, Cook said when she awoke from her coma, she knew he had been the culprit.  According to Cook, the couple had sought a fresh start from Minnesota when they re-located in 2007 and her husband sought work as an auto mechanic.  But they fell into financial hardship, unable to pay rent and other bills.  Cook said they had spent the day of the fire applying for food stamps.  The trial’s first day wound down as sheriff’s officers testified what they found when they responded to the fire scene—a duplex apartment unit not far from the Oconee Community Theatre in Utica.  Officer Barry Owens testified he examined the couple’s grill, found it cold to the touch, and determined they had not been grilling food that evening.