NEWPORT-Deliberating less than 90 minutes on Wednesday, a Cocke County criminal court jury acquitted a Hartford man of charges that he assaulted his next-door neighbor and trespassed on his property.

Sixty-five-year-old Wayne Sumrall, of 4220 Dogwood Stand Road, Hartford, had been accused of assault and criminal trespassing on the property of his next-door neighbor, 58-year-old James Brannon, of 4210 Dogwood Stand Road.

The eight-woman, four-man jury heard testimony on Wednesday that the incident began with a property-line dispute and ended with an altercation last November 25 that left Sumrall hospitalized for two days suffering from severe head injuries and with $85,000 in medical bills. Sumrall was later charged by the Cocke County Grand Jury with assault and criminal trespassing.

According to the testimony on Wednesday, Brannon and Sumrall had been neighbors for about five years. About a year before the incident leading to Sumrall's arrest, Brannon erected a fence on what he believed was the property line between the two neighbors.

There was no dispute about the property line until November 25, 2008, when Brannon found Sumrall on what Brannon believed was his side of the property line marking a new line and hammering "no trespassing" signs into the ground.

"I was bewildered," Brannon told the jury. "I walked over to him and asked him what he was doing. And I told him if there was a problem with the fence, I'd be glad to move it.

"Then he turned around and screamed at the top of his voice that he'd had a survey done and this was his fence," Brannon testified. "Then he struck me right square in the face."

There was some controversy during the day-long trial concerning a pocket knife belonging to Sumrall and whether it was ever a threat to Brannon during the confrontation.

Both sides agreed that Sumrall was wearing heavy gloves on a cold November day. But Brannon said the defendant was reaching into his pocket to get the knife during the incident.

"He had a knife in his hand and that scared me; so I defended my life," Brannon said. "Sumrall had a knife in his hand...that's what I'm sure of. He had a knife in his hand and I didn't give him a chance to use it."

Brannon said he "escorted" Sumrall closer to the Brannon residence to protect himself, although it was also suggested that he "dragged" his neighbor, then called 9-1-1.

"I did not drag Wayne Sumrall, ever," Brannon said. I escorted him; he walked. I was afraid that he would get a gun and shoot me."

Cocke County Sheriff's Detective Derrick Woods and Deputy David Crowder testified on Wednesday that they were called to the Brannon home and found Sumrall, who was near the residence, bleeding as a result of serious head injuries. No ambulance had been called when the officers arrived, so Crowder called for an ambulance to come to the scene.

The investigators also said that Brannon was bleeding from an apparent blow to the face, but his injuries were much less serious than Sumrall's.

Deputy Crowder said that Sumrall told him that Brannon "had dragged him" closer to the Brannon residence, although there were no "drag marks" on the ground. Crowder added that Brannon said he moved the defendant away from the fence "for his safety."

Both Woods and Crowder inspected the scene of the altercation with Brannon and took note of a hammer and the pocket knife on the ground. Crowder testified that Brannon saw the knife and said, "I'm glad he didn't get to that."

In his testimony before the jury on Wednesday, Sumrall agreed with some of Brannon's statements, but took exception to others.

Sumrall agreed that the fence had been between the two lots for more than a year, but said, "I thought he'd put his fence on my property."

The defendant said he had a survey of the land conducted on November 24, 2008, the day before the altercation, and that survey showed that the fence was an average of ten feet over the property line.

The defendant said that on November 25 he bought sign posts, "no trespassing" signs, and a ball of nylon twine at Wal-Mart and took them home. He said he placed his A-frame ladder over the fence and climbed across to mark his property line with twine and to post the signs. He said he carried a hammer, a staple gun, and his pocket knife with him as tools, not weapons.

"I was just going to mark off where the line was supposed to be" based on the survey, Sumrall told the jury.

The defendant agreed that Brannon had said he would move the fence if it was across the property line, but said that Brannon "grabbed me, threw me to the ground, sat on my stomach, and started beating me."

Sumrall said he was struck several times in the face and that Brannon sat on his chest and struck him several times with his knee. He also said that Brannon struck himself in the face.

"I didn't hit him, and he took his fist and hit himself several times in the face and said, 'What about that?'" Sumrall testified.

As a result of the beating, Sumrall suffered three broken ribs and numerous broken bones around his eyes which required extensive facial surgery, according to the testimony.

The defendant said his medical bills have totaled more than $85,000, but he had negotiated with the providers to a reduced figure of about $70,000. He said he has no insurance and is making monthly payments to several medical providers.

Sumrall denied having struck Brannon and said he did not raise his voice to begin the altercation.

"I never laid a hand on that man," Sumrall told the jury. "I didn't go out there to fight him. And I don't curse; I never said the things he said I said."

Sumrall also testified that investigators never asked him about his side of the dispute and that Brannon swore out a criminal warrant against him before he was released from the hospital. He said sheriff's department investigators never asked him to give a statement in the case.

In closing arguments to the jury on Wednesday afternoon, Assistant District Attorney General Tonya Thornton described the altercation as a case of self-defense. She said Sumrall started the fight by striking Brannon first and that Sumrall's testimony included "the absurd allegation" that Brannon caused himself to bleed by hitting himself in the face.

"What happened was that [Brannon] got sucker-punched and he did what he had to do to see that his life and property was protected," Thornton said. "Mr. Sumrall is asking you to find him not guilty based on some absurd assumptions."

But defense attorney Jonathan Holcomb said all the evidence points to Brannon as the instigator of the fight, that the beating was far more severe than was necessary for self-defense, and that investigators never gave Sumrall an opportunity to give them his side of the story.

The defense attorney told the jury that Brannon, a 205-pound retired firefighter, severely injured the slim, 115-pound defendant.

"How can the state tell you that it's OK to beat a man so severely that he has $85,000 in medical bills?" Holcomb argued. "He beat this man to death for no reason for merely climbing over a fence on his own property."

Holcomb also told the jury that the state had failed to prove that Sumrall was guilty of a criminal trespass because there was a real dispute over where the property line was properly located. The defendant could not be trespassing if he was on his own property, the defense attorney argued.

Holcomb also told the jury that Brannon took a criminal warrant against Sumrall while he was in the hospital and the sheriff's department arrested him without investigating the defendant's account of the events.

"You-all can afford Mr. Sumrall the opportunity the Cocke County Sheriff's Department did not: to be heard, to give his side of the story," Holcomb told the jury.

After receiving instructions from Circuit Judge Ben W. Hooper II about 2:30 p.m. after a four-hour trial, the jury returned its not guilty verdicts about 4 p.m.