State v. Farrar4/16/2002
On January 18, 2001, the defendant, Kevin Lane Farrar, was indicted by the Bedford County Grand Jury on one count of aggravated criminal trespass and two counts of aggravated assault for cutting his cousin with a knife during a November 2, 2000, altercation in the parking lot of a Shelbyville business. The criminal trespass count was subsequently dismissed, and the defendant proceeded to trial on the two remaining counts of the indictment, charging him with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The defendant's trial was held on April 9, 2001. The State's first witness was the victim, James Farrar, Jr., who identified the defendant as his second cousin. The victim testified that he was employed at Madison Street Tire , a Shelbyville business owned by his father. At about 11 p.m. on November 2, 2000, he was driving home past the business when he noticed that several individuals had pulled into the parking lot to drink. In addition to the defendant, the victim recognized his friend, Chad West, and his relatives, Eldie Farrar, Thomas ("Peanut") Farrar, Terry Wayne Farrar, and Steve Farrar. The victim testified that he pulled his pickup truck into the parking lot, got out, and said to the entire group, "You know you can't drink up here. I wish you'd go somewhere else and do it." At that point, he saw the defendant reach across West's truck to land a glancing blow on West's chin with his fist. The victim testified that he thought at first that the men were playing. When he realized that it was serious, he told the defendant, "Hey, you all take this somewhere else. This ain't the place for it to be." According to the victim, the defendant's response was to "lunge" at him. He said that he grabbed the defendant on either side of his head and pushed him down to the ground. As they went down toward the ground together, the victim felt "something up in side[.]" The victim testified that when he pulled the defendant's arm "out from inside stomach," he saw a bloody knife, which looked like a pocketknife, in the defendant's hand, and realized that he had been cut. As he let go of the defendant and got up to try to look at his wound, the defendant lunged at him again, this time cutting him on his left arm. The victim testified that he did not do anything to provoke the attack, and that he did not see West do or say anything to provoke the defendant, either. According to the victim, the entire incident happened very quickly, within the space of 45 to 50 seconds. At the request of the State, the victim stood and raised his shirt, exhibiting to the jury the scarring that had been left from his wounds.
The victim acknowledged that he had had between six to eight "baby Buds" from about 6:00 until 8:30 or 9:00 p.m., but denied that he was drinking or had a beer in his hand when he stopped at the parking lot. He also denied that he grabbed the defendant's neck in a choke hold, threatened the defendant or Terry Farrar or Eldie Farrar at the parking lot, or made any threats to anyone later in the evening, when West drove him from the hospital to the home of the defendant's parents, Roy and Peggy Farrar. He said that no altercation occurred at the home.
Chad West testified that it was his habit to go to the parking lot each evening. When he drove into the lot on the evening of November 2, 2000, approximately ten minutes before the victim arrived, the defendant, Eldie Farrar, Thomas Farrar, and Terry Wayne Farrar were already present. He said that he had not argued with anyone present, and was standing silent at the back of his truck, when the defendant reached over and "nicked" him in the chin with his fist. At about the same time, the victi
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