Why I like living in North Carolina #37: "Appeals court orders new trial in pitchfork assault"

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A man convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for hitting a man with a machete while being threatened with a pitchfork will get a new trial, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

Garland Scott Beal was convicted in 2005 of assault with a deadly weapon. The incident happened in Lee County on March 5, 2004, when Beal threw a machete at Vernon McIver, the man with whom he shared a mobile home. Beal paid $50 a week for the room.

Beal was sentenced to between 37 and 54 months in prison.

Beal said he and McIver got into an argument after drinking beer and McIver told Beal to leave. Beal initially refused to go. McIver left to call police and Beal packed his belongings but was confronted at the door of the trailer by a pitchfork-wielding McIver.

Beal grabbed a machete that was under the couch and dueled with McIver, who later stabbed at him with the pitchfork and broke the handle when he hit Beal with the tool.

The appeals judge said Beal was a lawful resident of McIver's mobile home and entitled to defend himself. The judges also said McIver committed an assault with the pitchfork.

McIver also had no right to "forcefully prevent another man from leaving a place he has a right to leave," the judges said.
"Here, the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to defendant, supports a conclusion that defendant was faced with a deadly assault and responded with deadly force," the court said.

The new trial was granted on grounds that the jury should have been told Beal "had no duty to retreat from the assault by McIver," the opinion said.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. (The image is not the actual trailer. But I bet it comes awful close.)