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Booking photo of Bradley Ashby, 19, 807 E. Chilhowie Ave. Charged with reckless homicide in connection with the death of James Lewis.
(Contributed / Johnson City Press)

Ex-bouncer tells court of events before fight that led to man's death

By Becky Campbell
Press Staff Writer
bcampbell@johnsoncitypress.com

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A former bouncer at New Beginnings testified Tuesday that he saw Bradley Ashby hit James Lewis outside the Bristol Highway bar Jan. 25 just before Lewis dropped to the ground.

Lewis, 48, of Telford, died the next day. Ashby, now 20, is charged with reckless homicide.

Alec Gilchrist, who worked security at New Beginnings, 2910 Bristol Highway, in January, testified the physical altercation that put Lewis on the ground happened after 3 a.m. after the bar closed and patrons were leaving.

But the verbal altercation between the men started much earlier and continued through the night, he said.

Gilchrist saw Ashby and a group of people at the bar for the first time that night. Lewis, who he had seen there before but not as a regular, was also there, he said.

Gilchrist described Lewis’ behavior as “somewhat eccentric,” and that there were harsh words between Lewis and Ashby’s group throughout the evening.

Gilchrist said he was alerted to the verbal banter by another person, and kept a check on it through the night. At times, he said he advised Lewis to leave the area where Ashby was standing, and that Lewis did.

He testified that neither man’s behavior was so overt that he asked anyone to leave the bar.

When the bar closed, Gilchrist left and drove his car toward the exit but there was a traffic jam.

“Everybody was honking and yelling,” so he got out to see if there was a problem. He saw Lewis pointing at people trying to get them to calm down and be quiet.

“I saw Mr. Ashby get out of his car and hit (Lewis). He hit him one time and Mr. Lewis fell to the ground,” Gilchrist testified.

Lewis never moved again.

Because of traffic, Ashby and his friends couldn’t get their car out, so they ran from the scene.

Gilchrist said people tried to give CPR to Lewis, who was bleeding from his nose and not breathing. Lewis was transported to Johnson City Medical Center where he died the next day.

There was also testimony from Johnson City Police Investigator Brett Richardson, who said Ashby told police he hit Lewis after the man hit Ashby’s sister.

Richardson read Ashby’s statement in court. In it, Ashby said Lewis approached he and his friends several times during the evening and talked about the “shield of God.” Ashby told Lewis to go away, he told police.

When the group was leaving the bar, Ashby said a group of girls started cussing them and one reached in and hit him and one of his friends. Ashby’s sister got out of the car and started fighting the girl.

“The man in the trench coat came up to my sister and hit her in the head,” Ashby told police in his statement. He was referring to Lewis, who Gilchrist had said was wearing a duster-style trench coat that night.

“I got out of the car and went up to the man. He reached in his coat and I though he was getting a gun or something. I punched him in the face with my fist one time. The man fell down and didn’t move,” he told police.

Defense attorney Donna Bolton objected when Assistant District Attorney General Julie Hayes asked Richardson to testify about the cause of death from Lewis’ autopsy report

Bolton said introducing the report without her being able to cross examine the person who produced the report would violate her client’s Sixth Amendment rights.

Sessions Judge James Nidiffer overruled Bolton’s objection, partially because the hearing was a probable cause hearing, not a jury trial.

According to the report, Lewis died from a brain hemorrhage. But on cross examination Richardson agreed with Bolton that the autopsy was inconclusive on the cause of the hemorrhage.

Nidiffer found there was probable cause that Ashby committed the crime and bound the case over to a grand jury. Ashby will remain free on bond and appear in Criminal Court early next year.