Schlitterbahn jury begins deliberations after closing arguments in Wyandotte County

Prosecutors on Thursday morning urged jurors to find two Schlitterbahn maintenance workers guilty of lying during the investigation into Caleb Schwab’s death on the Verruckt water slide in 2016.

Defense attorneys said the government had not come close to making a case.

A jury of eight women and four men then started deliberating about 10 a.m. in Wyandotte County District Court after both sides made closing arguments.

Adam Zentner, assistant Kansas Attorney General, replayed statements by the workers during voluntary interviews with Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents last year. David Hughes and John Zalsman indicated in those interviews that a brake pad on Verruckt had only been in used during testing of the 17-story slide, but not while it was in operation.

“The evidence in this case shows these men are guilty of the crimes they’re accused of,” Zentner said. “You should find them both guilty.”

Defense attorneys portrayed the government’s case as one of guesswork and conjecture, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. They said their clients had misstated certain aspects of the slide during their interviews with KBI agents a year after Caleb’s death, but so had scores of other witnesses who were not charged or investigated for obstruction.

“These are just two good old boys, they’re hard working guys and because they’re the only two adults in the room they get singled out and have to get charged,” said Scott Toth, defense attorney for Hughes, as he addressed jurors.

To return guilty verdicts, jurors were instructed that they had to find Hughes and Zalsman lied, did so knowingly and that they wanted to obstruct the state’s investigation into Caleb’s death.

Caleb died on Aug. 7, 2016, on the Verruckt water slide at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kan. Verruckt, the tallest water slide in the world, took three riders on a raft down a steep, 168-foot descent before climbing a 50-foot hump and coming to rest in a trough of water.

Caleb, 10, was killed when his raft went airborne as it crested the hump and he collided with a metal pole supporting a netting system to keep riders from flying off the ride.

The brake mat was believed to be a mechanism to slow the pace of the raft as it climbed the second hump, although Toth in closing arguments suggested it could be for rafts that lacked the momentum to climb all the way up the hump.

Prosecutors said the mat, which had been peeling off the slide during the 2016 water park season, came completely off on July 28, 2016, less than two weeks before Caleb’s fatal ride. They argued that the maintenance workers knew the brake pad had come off, neglected to repair it and then lied to KBI agents to deflect the investigation off of them by suggesting the mat only existed during testing of the ride.

“They had to explain certain things away,” Zentner said. “They had to deflect attention away from themselves. They knew this was during the investigation of a fatality. This was not a mistake, this was intentional calculated conduct.”

Attorneys for Hughes and Zalsman said prosecutors never presented evidence to show that the maintenance team became aware of the missing brake pad, adding that the brake pad was irrelevant.

“If you’re going to try to obstruct an investigation, maybe talk about something that had to do with the death,” said Chris Joseph, attorney for Zalsman.

The defense also argued that KBI agents presented other witnesses with documents and photos to allow them to correct erroneous statements, but never afforded their clients that opportunity.

“It looks like a set-up to me,” Joseph said.

This is the first criminal trial in Caleb’s death.