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New Details In Hammer Beating of Mother

616 views · Published 9 November 2012 · 2:23 · Indexed 16 October 2026

Channel: WTVC NewsChannel 9 · 2012 · News & Politics

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by John Madewell   New details are surfacing in Tuesday's brutal hammer beating in Meigs County. 22-year-old Jeron Smith is charged with attempted murder in the alleged beating of his mother, 50-year-old Karen Neal.Meigs County Sheriff Jackie Melton said an argument at 213 Bradley Lane led to the attack but the why remains part of the investigation. Sheriff Melton said the argument and hammer attack started in the kitchen, but then moved into the living room. "I guess drug her into the living room floor and continued to multiple times hit her, attack her," Melton said.This afternoon, NewsChannel 9 learned Smith was recently released from Chattanooga's Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute.Meanwhile, at the latest check, his mother is clinging to life at Erlanger Medical Center. On Tuesday, her husband, John Neal, came home to see his wife on the living room floor with severe trauma to her head. Outside on the back porch, Neal saw his 5-year-old grandson holding a shotgun that investigators say Smith had handed to him. Melton said, "The little boy told them that Mr. Smith said that he wanted him to shoot him."In a written release, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Neal  got a second shotgun from inside the home and shot Smith. He ran away and ended up at a home about a mile away in Hamilton County.He was flown to Erlanger for treatment. After his release, the TBI arrested and charged him. He remains in the Meigs County jail on a 10,000 bond. Sheriff Melton said if Neal doesn't survive, charges will be upgraded.

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