Published: November 18, 2008 04:59 pm      

Jury returns assault verdict in case where victim lost leg

A neighborhood feud over placement of a fence culminated in a country road showdown that resulted in a man losing a leg. Late last week a Cumberland County jury ruled that the person driving the truck that hit the victim was guilty of simple assault.

Lennie Dwain Roe, 51, of Sparta and formerly of Keys Rd., was on trial for driving the pickup truck that struck Anthony Wayne "Tony" Conley.

It took the jury about eight hours of deliberation to reject the felony charges of aggravated assault and reckless aggravated assault on which state prosecutors were seeking guilty verdicts.

Instead, the jury opted for the lesser misdemeanor offense of simple assault, apparently sending a message that the victim held some culpability in the events leading up to and including the vehicular assault.

Judge David Patterson set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 28 for Roe. He faces up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and a fine.

Both sides agree that the fence Roe and his wife, Cheryl, erected, was actually on property owned by their neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Walls. That fence was the source of bad blood between neighbors that started about five years before and resulted in the Roes selling their house and property to the Wallses.

Testimony from witnesses for the defense said that it appeared the Conley family, and Tony in particular, took up the cause on the Wallses' behalf, and would "fight the Wallses' fights," as one witness put it.

Usually confrontations took place at the fence and would rapidly digress into profanity-laced tirades back and forth.

The Roes claimed they were being harassed and the victims of vandalism, claiming someone shot out their windows and fired guns in the direction of their house.

Cumberland County Sheriff's Investigator Bo Kollros, who lives in the general area, was assigned to investigate the claims and after making several trips to the area, never found evidence of anyone shooting a gun into or at the Roes' residence.

Conley took the stand during the two-day trial and testified he became angry when the Roes taunted Jerry Walls with comments of "dead man walking."

Walls was suffering from terminal cancer and Conley admitted, "It made me mad. I lost control." Conley added that he felt it was no way to treat a man suffering from cancer.

Another issue was video cameras that had been installed and faced the fence and the Wallses' house. One video shows Conley shoveling gravel off the Wallses' property, and later the Roes shoveling it back.

The Roes sold their property eight months before the April 19, 2007 incident that took place on Clear Creek Rd., near the Keys Rd. intersection.

Conley testified that the only thing he remembered from that day was getting off work around 4:30 p.m. Some 38 days later he awoke in The University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville where he was treated for a leg so mangled it had to be amputated, and with a tear to his aorta which had to be replaced.

"The doctor told me that God had another purpose for me," Conley testified.

He showed his surgical scar to the jury, at the request of Assistant District Attorney Gary McKenzie, and talked about how dramatically the accident had changed not only his life, but the lives of his children and family.

Under cross examination, Conley denied jumping in front of the Roe's pickup truck and one exchanged sparked Conley to state as he pointed at the defendant, "I had rather be where Mr. Roe is than where I am."

When asked by McKenzie, "Why?" Conley responded, "I would have my leg back."

Cheryl Roe took the stand and she and her husband, the defendant, returned to the community eight months after selling their property, to visit some friends and to do some landscaping.

At some point, Conley, driving his mother's green Volkswagen Beetle, came in contact with the Roes. Cheryl Roe testified that Conley got in front of their pickup and would slow down, and then speed up. She said that when her husband tried to pass, Conley would speed up.

They finally passed Conley and, according to Cheryl Roe, he then tail-gated their vehicle until they became frightened and stopped to let Conley pass.

Moments later the Roes drove up on Conley standing in the road, waving his coat as if mimicking a bullfighter.

"He's a nut," Cheryl Roe testified she said to her husband, as she urged him to change lanes to get around Conley and his mother's car that was parked partially on the side of the road.

She said her husband got over as far as he could but still struck the man, with the impact tossing him onto the hood of their truck. "Boom! That's when we hit him."

Conley then fell off the side, knocking off a side mirror on the pickup. Cheryl Roe testified she closed her eyes and did not see Conley land on the hood or fall off onto the road and into a ditch.

"It was horrible, I mean, the noise and everything." The Roes traveled to the closest residence, the Rosemary Payne home, and called for an ambulance and police.

Under cross examination, Cheryl Roe denied that her husband deliberately ran over Conley and repeatedly called the incident an accident.

Trooper Jamie Stephens was the investigating officer on the accident and testified he was uncertain just where Conley was standing when he was struck. He was certain about the Roes Dodge pickup striking the parked car. "There is no way the truck would have hit the car if it had been in its proper lane," Stephens testified.

Both THP Sgts. James Sells and Kevin Norris testified that the Roes should have been able to stop their truck to avoid striking Conley. There were no skid marks at the scene but there was what was described as shadow marks where a vehicle had swerved in the opposite lane of travel.

To counter the troopers' testimony, defense attorney Phillip Lamonaco called Blount County Sheriff's Sgt. Randy Ailey, also an accident reconstructionist, who testified that investigation of the accident was hampered by evidence being moved at the scene and by troopers being unable to establish a point of impact.

He did calculate using a computer program fed with statistics and a drawing of the accident scene by troopers and determined that the Roes were only traveling 30 to 32 mph, which would not indicate a speed at which someone would intentionally run someone down.

A civil lawsuit filed by Conley against the Roes is still pending.