A Roan Mountain teen charged with murder appeared in Criminal Court Thursday on a different case, this one alleging he assaulted his cell mate with a broken sprinkler head.
Anthony Lacy, 19, of Roan Mountain appeared in court Thursday on charges of aggravated assault and vandalism under $500.
In the original warrant on the charges, Corrections Officer Brandon Stissel said he was working in “A Block” at the Carter County Detention Center when inmates alerted him to a fight going on in one of the cells.
“Upon opening the door, I saw inmate Anthony Lacy standing up and inmate James Buckingham was lying on the floor on his back under the bunk in a pool of blood,” Stissel said.
Lacy has several other charges pending in Carter County Criminal Court, including a first-degree murder charge in the death of Roan Mountain man Danny Vance in July 2014. Lacy faces the possibility of the death penalty in that case if convicted.
On Thursday, Judge Stacy Street asked attorney Gene Scott, one of the attorneys appointed to represent Lacy on the murder case, if he would also represent Lacy on the assault and vandalism charges.
Scott said he and Jim Bowman, the other attorney appointed to Lacy, request the court appoint a separate lawyer for the new charges so he and Bowman can focus their efforts on the more serious murder case. Street agreed that would be a wise move and appointed attorney Patrick Denton, who represented Lacy in General Sessions Court, to represent him on the case now that it has been bound over to Criminal Court.
Assistant District Attorney Dennis Brooks informed the court the state would like to proceed with the aggravated assault case rather than wait until after the murder case is heard because he anticipates the murder case will take a some time to prepare for trial.
Lacy is scheduled to be back in Criminal Court on Sept. 4 on all of his cases.