By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The man accused of cutting another man across the back of the neck during a dispute at a Chehalis apartment building was charged Friday with first-degree assault, a class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Chehalis police arrested Terry Lee Bryan, 30, described as a transient, after the 1:15 a.m. call on Thursday to the apartments on the 200 block of Northwest Chehalis Avenue.
According to charging documents, officers arrived and encountered several of the building’s inhabitants yelling and pointing out apartment numbers five and six.
When Sheldon Hardy emerged, he was shirtless and his face and upper torso were covered with blood, according to the documents. An officer placed him in a prone handcuffing position on the ground, and then the officer observed a large cut on the back of his neck, the documents say.
The officer entered the other apartment and found Bryan standing there. Bryan said Hardy had come in an attacked him, according to the charging documents.
Hardy, 36, who also had a laceration on his shoulder and another above his eye, was taken to the hospital, treated and then released later in the morning.
The weapon police recovered was a blue, folding box cutter type knife, the kind that uses a razor blade, according to Chehalis police detective Sgt. Rick McNamara.
Bryan has no stable address but has lived in the Chehalis and Centralia area for the past four years, has no income from any source and no felony history, according to police and the attorneys handling his case. However, he has some 22 misdemeanors, mostly trespassing citations, the lawyers told the judge on Friday afternoon in the Chehalis courtroom.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Steve Scott requested Bryan be held on $50,000 bail. Defense attorney Bob Schroeter asked Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt to consider $25,000 bail.
Judge Hunt set bail at $100,000.
Bryan’s poverty made him eligible for a court-appointed attorney. His opportunity to make his plea will come next Thursday.
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Read the original news story from Thursday, July 1, 2010 here.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter