A judge said that it is a “travesty” that a Mohave Valley man spent 19 months in custody before he was acquitted of the most serious criminal charges at his trial that concluded on Feb. 7. Mohave County Superior Court Judge Rick Lambert said neither he nor the jury found the victim’s accounts and testimony to be credible.
Lambert said the methamphetamine addict’s claims that her estranged boyfriend Nathan Strawderman, 43, repeatedly struck her with a baseball bat in Oct., 2017 were unsupported by medical records involving injury or other evidence.
The jury convicted Strawderman of the two, least serious, assault-related charges, while finding him not guilty of kidnapping and three aggravated assault counts.
“It was apparent to me that the jury did not believe the victim in this case,” Lambert said during Strawderman’s March 5 sentencing hearing in Kingman. “I did not believe the victim in this case. I did not believe she had credibility.
Judge Lambert declined to impose a prison sentence or additional jail time. Lambert ordered a 519-day jail sentence while crediting Strawderman for the same many days spent in custody.
Strawderman would be free were it not for an out-of-state hold for an unresolved child support payment dispute. Strawderman remains in jail in Kingman, awaiting extradition on that matter by the state of Ohio.
