Jurors contemplate charges in duck-feeding fight

Quinten Putnam testifies that he was forced to defend himself

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Jurors are deliberating in the trial of a man accused of beating a neighbor in a duck-feeding fight.

A man is on trial, fighting for his freedom, after being jailed for feeding a family of ducks.

"For two and a half years, my life has been in limbo," Quinten Putnam said. "I lost my home; I've been homeless."

After testifying on his own behalf at trial after being charged in a fight over Muscovy ducks so bizarre that it made international headlines two years ago, the emotion was written all over Putnam's face as he awaited the jury verdict.

"It's the most horrible thing in the world not knowing what your future is going to be," he said.

Putnam -- facing up to five years in prison for battery on a person over 65 years of age -- finally testified in the trial Wednesday. He told the jury it was the alleged victim in the case -- his former neighbor, David Lawn -- who grabbed him in anger over the fact that he had fed a mother duck and her ducklings on May 11, 2014. No one argues that Lawn, an accused hater of the ducks that many consider pests, was the one who confronted Putnam.

"They defecate on my lawn," Lawn said.

Lawn claimed Putnam tackled him and beat him, but the prosecution's side was replete with contradictions from witnesses, and Putnam testified that Lawn forced him to defend himself.

"He came over and grabbed my shoulders," Putnam said.

He said that started a fight that ended with the two men on the street, where Putnam admitted during the struggle he struck Lawn 10 times with the palm of his hand in an attempt to get away from him. He also kicked him as he was rising up off of him. Prosecutor Andy Newman focused on the kick in his closing.

"How can you be in fear of being choked when you're standing, kicking a 69-year-old man?" Newman said. "Would that ever make sense?"

Putnam's public defender, Alexis Hudson, argued otherwise.

"In order to break free, he kicked him on the side," Hudson said. "Mr. Lawn let him go. That was the end of it."