Published: November 13, 2009 08:00 am      

Woman not guilty in flashlight assault

A Sparta woman contended all along she was simply defending herself from an invader who walked uninvited into the mobile home she shared with her boyfriend at the time. This week a Cumberland County jury agreed.

Krystal LouAnn Harrison, 24, of White County, who formerly lived in Cumberland County in a residence behind the County Line Bar off Hwy. 70 W, was facing up to 25 years in prison but walked out of the courtroom a free woman.

"I have had this hanging over me for a year," Harrison said a few days after the trial. "Now I can start to get my life back."

Harrision was arrested Dec. 8 of last year on the charge of felony aggravated assault, accused of clubbing Dixie Ashburn, 51, of Sparta, over the head with a mag flashlight.

She contended all along that she did not club anyone; that she only defended herself from an intruder.

The fight centered around the attention of a man — the victim's ex-husband and the defendant's live-in boyfriend at the time.

Ashburn testified that she had been married to Tony Ashburn, owner of the County Line Bar, for 22 years and although they had divorced, they were on friendly terms, sharing holidays together and sometimes visiting.

Harrison went to work at the bar as a manager but a relationship developed and, according to Harrison, she was asked to stay at home and take care of domestic things while Tony Ashburn worked at the bar.

The relationship was such that the boyfriend bought Harrison a Lexus car.

In October Dixie Ashburn took her ex-husband to Cookeville General Hospital where he underwent out-patient surgery and returned home that night. While at the hospital, Harrison called to check on his condition, and for the first time, testimony showed, talked to Dixie Ashburn in a very brief conversation.

The conversation ended with Dixie Ashburn telling Harrison to not call her cell phone again.

The next time the two women talked was on Dec. 8 when Harrison called Dixie Ashburn to tell her she had listened to voice mails that Dixie had left for Tony and that she wanted Dixie "to stay out of my business."

What happened next was the "she said, she said" testimony that was placed on the jury to sort out.

Dixie Ashburn testified she went to Tony Ashburn's residence to confront him over Harrison listening to the cell phone messages. She said she walked onto the porch, shouted out Tony's name and then pushed the door open, as was her custom.

"I was ambushed," Dixie Harrison testified. She said she was struck repeatedly in the head with a hard object, resulting in her ending up tumbling over a chair and onto the floor with several gashes in her head.

She testified that Harrison landed on top of her and struck her again, and then started ramming her with a knee to the face.

"She would not get off of me until I screamed for my sister (Penny Gossett)."

Under cross examination, Dixie Ashburn testified that she did not know Harrison and did not know her ex-husband was involved in a relationship with her.

Harrison testified that after she found the voice mails from Dixie Ashburn to her boyfriend, she decided to call the ex-wife and tell her to "stay out of my business."

She said not long after Dixie Ashburn left another message on her boyfriend's phone, someone arrived at the residence. Although she had never seen Dixie Ashburn, she had an idea that it might be her.

When the woman pushed open the door and walked into the trailer, Harrison "grabbed what I seen" and struck the intruder.

"I was scared. All I knew was I wanted this woman off of me and was going to do whatever I had to do," Harrison testified. She added that no words were exchanged prior to the fracas.

After getting her down on the floor, Harrison testified that she asked Dixie Ashburn, "Am I gonna have to knock you in the head to get you to leave?"

She quoted Dixie Ashburn as responding, "Just wait till I tell Tony what you did." And with that, she left.

The defendant testified she then became scared, grabbed her clothes and went to her mother's home on Hayes St. in Sparta.

When picked up by police, she did not immediately admit to her role in the fracas.

White County Sheriff's Deputy Chadra Daniels testified that she interviewed both women and that in her opinion, Harrison was the aggressor in an unprovoked attack. She also testified that Harrison was less than truthful about the incident when first asked.

Cumberland County Sheriff's Deputy Jeff Turner testified about his dispatch to the scene and about finding blood on the outside walkway, front steps, door and floor inside.

Lisa Hernandez, who works for the the Bon de Croft Head Start program, visited at the Ashburn trailer when Harrison's child was enrolled and that each time she found it to be where Harrison was living.

Photos showing the blood and laceration were introduced into evidence, along with the two-cell mag flashlight used in the assault.