Update: The Denny Trial

A look at key developments Thursday:

* In answer to a question from the jury, Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk read the legal definition of assault to the panel. Jurors had sought clarification on whether assault includes attacking a person’s vehicle if the person is inside. In three of the assault counts against Damian Monroe Williams and Henry Keith Watson, automobiles were damaged, but their drivers were not injured. Under the law, Ouderkirk told the jury, “an assault can only be directed at the person of another. A vehicle cannot be the ultimate objective of an assault.” But it is up to the jury to determine if the object of an assault was the person or the vehicle.

* Attorney Edi M.O. Faal asked Ouderkirk for assurances that the sequestered jury has no access to radio of television news broadcasts. Jurors’ hotel rooms have no radios or televisions, the judge said. Jurors are able to watch television in a room where a bailiff is always present, Ouderkirk said. Most evenings they choose to watch movies on videotape, he said.

* The tiniest shred of information can set off speculation about the stage that jury deliberations have reached. Jurors ate a lunch of cold-cut sandwiches, potato salad, potato chips and ice cream. To some courthouse regulars, that menu looked like carbohydrate loading for marathon days of deliberations. To others, the meal seemed more like a sleeves-rolled, working-at-the-desk lunch--one that means the panel is aggressively and rapidly pressing ahead.