A Roan Mountain man who faced two different juries in the past week was once again convicted of assaulting someone while a prisoner at the Carter County Detention Center.
Following a trial that began on Monday and concluded on Tuesday, a Carter County Jury found Anthony Lacy, 20, guilty of one count of reckless endangerment. The jury also found him not guilty of one count of vandalism under $500.
Officers with the Carter County Sheriff’s Office originally charged Lacy with aggravated assault in connection with an August 2014 incident where he was involved in an altercation with his cellmate, James Buckingham. During their deliberations, members of the jury passed on the aggravated assault charged and found Lacy guilty of the lesser offense of reckless endangerment.
Under state law reckless endangerment is defined as: “a person commits an offense who recklessly engages in conduct that places or may place another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.”
According to court documents, on August 30, 2014, CCSO Deputy Brandon Stissel was supervising inmates in “A Block” at the Detention Center when two inmates on the “A Block” mezzanine level began to yell that a fight was occurring inside a cell on the mezzanine level. Stissell said he went upstairs to the mezzanine level and opened the cell door.
“I seen Inmate Anthony Lacy standing up and Inmate James Buckingham was laying on the floor on his back under the bunk in a pool of blood,” Stissell said. “Inmate Buckingham had blood coming from what appeared to be a head wound.”
Tuesday marked the second time in a week that Lacy has been convicted in connection with incidents that occurred while he was confined at the Carter County Detention Center. On Oct. 25, a different jury found Lacy guilty of one count of aggravated assault and one count of misdemeanor reckless endangerment.
In that case, Lacy had been charged in connection with an assault on a corrections officer at the Carter County Detention Center. Lacy had originally been charged with attempted first degree murder and aggravated assault in the case. During their deliberations, the jury passed on the attempted first degree murder charge and instead found Lacy guilty of the lesser included offense of misdemeanor reckless endangerment. The jury found Lacy guilty as charged on the count of aggravated assault.
Carter County Criminal Court Judge Stacy Street, who presided over both recent trials, scheduled Lacy to appear for a sentencing hearing in both cases on Dec. 6. A pre-sentencing report to determine what, if any, prior criminal record Lacy has was ordered.
At the time of both of these incidents, Lacy was being housed at the Detention Center awaiting trial on charges of first degree murder, especially aggravated robbery, burglary, evading arrest and multiple counts of theft of property.
Those charges against Lacy are still pending at this time as both he and his co-defendant in the case Demetrice Cordell, 21, also of Roan Mountain, await trial. The two men are accused in connection with what police have described as a “crime spree” through Roan Mountain during the late night hours on July 3, 2014 through the early morning hours of July 4, 2014. During that time frame, officers say Lacy and Cordell killed Roan Mountain resident Danny Vance during a robbery.
The murder case against the two men is scheduled to go to trial in March 2017.