FAIRBURY - A southeast Nebraska jury has found a former Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy not guilty of failing or neglecting to serve a warrant.

60-year-old Wilbur Young was charged sixth not serving a warrant for Jerry Barnes between late October and late November in 2021. After a handful of witness stories, the jury of five women and one man found him not guilty.

Jarrett Willett is a current deputy in the county and told his night supervisor about a conversation he claims he and Young had after Young had said he had seen Barnes.

“I informed my sergeant for night shift, told him face to face in the office,” Willett said.

Willett claimed he came in to work that day around 4:00 PM for his 4:00 PM-4:00 AM usual shift. However, the sheriff’s office office manager, another deputy, and former sheriff Nels Sorensen all say Willett was there when Young returned to the office to find out Barnes had a warrant after just seeing him in late October.

“While we were in during this, Deputy Willett came through to check his mailbox,” Sorensen said.

The prosecution then asked Sorensen if Willet was part of the conversation.

“I don’t believe so, we were all just in close quarters, so he overheard,” Sorensen said.

Another key point of the trial was the testimony of Jerry Barnes, the man Young was accused of not serving the warrant for. Barnes claims, in November, Young didn’t serve a warrant he had for him, out of respect for the Thanksgiving holiday.

“He said that I had a warrant, I said ‘come on, it’s Thanksgiving, just let me go, and I promise   I’ll turn myself in on Monday,” Barnes sad.

When asked about what happened next, Barnes said Young agreed.

“Took about 10 minutes, but he finally agreed to it,” Barnes said. “He [Young] said ‘I haven’t’ seen you, you haven’t seen me,”

The defense didn’t believe any of that to be true.

Young also took the stand as the final witness. Young said he saw Barnes on a motorcycle he had known to be unendorsed and knew Barnes had a suspended license from prior traffic stops. However, the person on the bike was wearing a helmet, so Young couldn’t take action because he couldn’t tell if it was truly Barnes. He also saw a black portfolio bag, which he believed to have drugs because of Barnes’ history. But he didn’t have probable cause to search it. Later that day, he learned about the warrant.

In closing statements to the jury, prosecutor Corey O’Brien made a point of not dispelling Barnes’ statement.

“We talked in voir dire about whether or not someone like Jerry Barnes is capable of telling the truth,” O’Brien said. “And all of you agreed that someone like that, is capable of telling the truth.”

Defense Attorney Lyle Koenig made it a point that Willett’s statement about not being at the station to over hear the conversation was false because of the rule of probability.

“If Willett wasn’t there, Nels is lying. Wilbur’s lying. And Amber [office manager] was,” Koenig said. “What’s the rule of probability say? Whatever insurances Willettt gives that he wasn’t there, he was there.”

Approximately 11 hours after the trip began with jury selection, a late night verdict came through, finding Young not guilty. Young also intends to run for Sheriff against Nick Georgi.