By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

A Laurel Circuit Court jury Monday found Joe Lewis, III, and Dalton Brewer innocent of animal cruelty charges pending for nearly a year.

The jury returned its verdict at 9:30 p.m. after about 30 minutes of deliberations.

Lewis, of Adams Road, and Brewer, of Gilliam Street, Corbin, were investigated in June last year regarding animal cruelty after Jeremy Looney, a neighbor, reported to Laurel Dispatch that he had seen the two allegedly using one dog to bait another and allowing them to fight in the backyard of Lewis’ Laurel County home.

Looney’s call came in between 11:30 and 11:45 that night.

Testimony indicated that Lewis had been notified by Looney’s wife, Heather, at about 10:20 p.m. that a stray dog in the neighborhood, a large dog thought to perhaps be a St. Bernard mix, was at Lewis’ home and was apparently aggravating Lewis’ American Staffordshire Terrier, also known as a Pit Bull.

Lewis and Brewer have both sustained injuries that greatly hinder their movements. In his testimony, Brewer, who had sustained a closed head injury and other skeletal injuries and was subject to seizures, said he must support himself with a cane when walking.

Brewer, who also sustained a closed head injury and several broken bones in an automobile incident, testified that, depending on the situation, he must at least use a cane for walking, and often a walker or even a wheelchair.

Testimony indicated the stray dog had been in the neighborhood most of the day.

Lewis testified that after Heather Looney warned him of the stray bothering Crown, the seven-and-a-half year old Pit Bull, he and Brewer limped into the backyard on their canes, separated the two animals and eventually chased the stray animal away.

Brewer testified that the stray animal had attacked Crown, who was at the end of its chain, and both animals were injured and had blood on them.

Jeremy Looney, in his testimony, which opened the state’s case against Lewis and Brewer, said he saw the two in the backyard with the stray on a rope and Crown on its chain.

He said they would lead the stray up to Crown and let the two dogs fight, then when the animals were tired, would take the stray back and rest them for a few minutes and return the stray for a second round.

After the second round, Looney said, they took the stray to a set of mobile home entrance steps that were standing independently near the driveway.

Then, according to Jeremy Looney, a woman drove up in a truck, took the stray and drove away.

Testimony later indicated that the stray dog had been found beneath the porch of a nearby home.

Crown and the stray were taken to the Laurel County Animal Shelter after the investigation.

A cross examination and photographs made of the area showed that the view from the Looney kitchen window, from which Jeremy Looney said he had seen the incident, would not have given him a good view of the incident. Absence of major lighting in the area would also have hindered Jeremy Looney’s ability to see the area well, according to testimony.

At about 11:45 p.m., three sheriff’s deputies arrived at the home owned by Betty Dalton, Lewis’ grandmother, with whom he lived.

After an examination of the backyard, the three knocked on the back door of the Dalton home and were met by Joe Lewis, Jr., Joe Lewis, III’s, father, who answered the door.

The officers entered the home and began questioning Joe Lewis, III, Joe Lewis, Jr., and Brewer, after handcuffing them and threatening arrest.

They were eventually freed that night and the three were indicted on animal cruelty by an August grand jury.

In a later hearing, on a motion by the Commonwealth, charges against Joe Lewis, Jr., were dropped.