Sheriff’s officer: no evidence couple was grilling

An Oconee sheriff’s officer said he could find no evidence on the night that Katherine Cook received burns over 50% of her body that the couple was cooking food on a grill.  Officer Barry Owens said he opened and felt the top of the couple’s grill, but no evidence it had been used that evening.  About the grill, he said, “It was cold to the touch.”  Owens said at the scene he considered Cook’s then husband, Jacob Drotning, to have been intoxicated.  But when cross examined by attorney Lee Cole, neither Owens nor the state’s next witness, investigator Scott Arnold, said they performed any kind of alcohol or sobriety test on either the husband or the wife.  The General Sessions Court  trial, in which Drotning, is contesting the four charges on which he was arrested in 2014 is expected to continue into Thursday at the Oconee Courhouse.