An attorney for a man accused of opening fire on police officers and injuring two people in December is petitioning the court to grant his client a new preliminary hearing on the charges against him.
Earlier this month, a Carter County Grand Jury indicted Kelly Lee Pitts, 36, of 433 Dry Hollow Road, on seven counts of attempted first degree murder and seven counts of possession of a fire arm during the commission of a dangerous felony.
Pitts made his first appearance in Criminal Court on Monday and his attorney, Greg Norris, filed a motion asking the court to grant a new preliminary hearing for Pitts.
In his motion, Norris said he had requested a copy of the audio recording of the preliminary hearing held on March 11, which led to Pitts being bound over to the Grand Jury, in order to prepare for his client’s defense in the case. Norris said he received the audio recording only to discover “the audio recording of said hearing was inaudible and unusable in its current state.”
Norris asked the court to grant a new preliminary hearing on the charges or, in the alternative, to direct the state to attempt to enhance and transcribe the recording of the previous preliminary hearing. If the court allows the state to enhance the recording, Norris asked the court to reserve its ruling on a motion for a new preliminary hearing until it was determined if the enhanced audio recording was usable.
If the court grants Norris’ request, the case against Pitts would be sent back to General Sessions Court for a preliminary hearing.
The charges against Pitts stem from a Dec. 16, 2015, incident in Stoney Creek where Pitts allegedly opened fire on officers responding to a 911 call about an intoxicated man armed with a gun.
Carter County Sheriff Dexter Lunceford was the first officer to arrive on scene.
In March, Lunceford testified during a preliminary hearing when he arrived at 433 Dry Hollow Road he saw a man, later identified as Michael Hyder, standing in the road so he stopped to speak with him. A few minutes later, the two were joined by Brandy Hyder and Greg Hardin, who had walked up the hill from the home at 433 Dry Hollow Road.
As he was speaking with the three subjects, Lunceford said Carter County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. David Caldwell, Deputy Jason Mosier and Deputy Jenna Markland arrived at the scene. Lunceford continued talking to Brandy Hyder as the other officers pulled up and began exiting their cruisers.
“Ms. Hyder was upset and crying and I told her that we weren’t going to harm him unless we had to,” Lunceford testified. “No sooner than I said that I heard the first shots.”
The officers took cover behind their vehicles and Lunceford said he heard 25 to 30 shots fired, followed by a short break of a few seconds and then a second burst of 25-30 shots.
After the second round of shots, Lunceford said he heard a man yell that someone had been shot and he later learned Brandy Hyder had been struck in the hand by a bullet.
It was around this time that Lunceford said he also realized Markland had been struck in the head.
“It was dark and a little hard to see but I saw this dark stuff spreading on her face and I knew what it was,” Lunceford said.
With the help of Michael Hyder, Lunceford said the officers were able to evacuate Markland and Brandy Hyder to waiting ambulances and they were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Later that night, officers took Pitts into custody after locating him in a cave near the residence.
During the preliminary hearing, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Scott Lott said when officers searched Pitts’ home they found an SKS rifle and an AK47 assault rifle lying on a bed in the bedroom officers believe the shots were fired from.
“The forensic scientists recovered 52 7.62 shell casings from that bedroom,” Lott said. “The magazines that were recovered were 30-round magazines.”
During his testimony, Lott read from a statement which Pitts gave to investigators on the night he was arrested.
“I had an AK47 and I shot into the crowd a few times,” Lott read from Pitts’ statement. “I didn’t soot at the cars.”
In his statement, Pitts said he fired between five and 10 rounds.
“I swear to God I wasn’t shooting at anybody or at the cars,” Lott read from Pitts’ statement. “I was just trying to scare the people outside.”