Hearing in Murder Case Ends in Courtroom Outburst

An outburst in General Sessions Court Thursday has landed one man in trouble with the law.
23 year old Clay Andrew Bain of Lakeview Drive, Smithville is charged with disrupting a meeting or procession and two counts of assault. His bond is $4,500 and he will be in court on April 9.
The incident occurred at the end of a preliminary hearing in the second degree murder case against 42 year old Anthony (Tony) Tyrone Crews, who is charged in the February 5th fatal stabbing of 28 year old Ashley Bain. The woman was found dead in the home she and Crews shared at 3870 Cookeville Highway, Smithville. Clay Bain is the victim’s brother.
After Judge Bratten Cook, II ordered the case bound to the grand jury, Bain stood up and walked toward the door as if to exit the courtroom. When Judge Cook asked him to return to his seat, Bain walked past where Crews was seated and took a swing at him with his fist, hitting Crews in the head. A deputy standing beside Crews, Sergeant Brian Williams, suffered an injury to his left hand as Bain was trying to get to Crews. After being hit, Crews, who was handcuffed, stood up and turned toward Bain but he was quickly grabbed by officers and taken out of the courtroom. Bain was also escorted out. During the outburst, others in the courtroom, believed to be members of the Bain family began shouting and yelling obscenities at Crews.
The assault charges against Bain are for his attack on both Crews and Sergeant Williams. According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, one of the warrants alleges that Bain assaulted Crews by hitting him in the head while the DeKalb County General Sessions Court was in session. The other warrant alleges that Bain assaulted Sergeant Williams by attempting to gain access so that he could assault Crews. Sergeant Williams’ left hand received an injury from Bain’s actions. The disrupt warrant alleges that Bain did disrupt the DeKalb County General Sessions Court by making verbal threats and physically assaulting Anthony Tyrone Crews.
Following the hearing, Judge Cook increased Crew’s bond to $2 million dollars. At the time of his arrest, Crews’ bond was set at $250,000 but Judge Cook increased it to $1 million during Crews’ first court appearance on February 12.
Assistant District Attorney General Greg Strong called two persons to testify during Thursday’s hearing and they were questioned by both Strong and Assistant Public Defender Allison Rasbury West , who is representing Crews.
Amy Tucker, a clerk at Village Market Marathon on North Congress Boulevard, testified that Crews was a regular customer and bought beer there on the day that Bain was killed. ” He was a pretty steady customer. He came in usually two or three times a day every day and bought beer,” she said.
During his testimony, TBI Special Agent and Criminal Investigator Lance Walker said surveillance video from Village Market showed Crews making a beer purchase around 1:00 p.m. on the day of the murder and an empty beer bottle and a bloody knife, believed to have been the murder weapon were found later that afternoon inside a Village Market bag at the crime scene. “We had heard that he had gone to Village Market and we retrieved a receipt (from the store) that matched up with beer sales of Mr. Crews purchasing 2-24 ounce Bud Ices and a Steel Reserve with a time stamp on the receipt at 1 p.m. The store video showed him making the purchase. When we got to the scene back in the bedroom where Ms Bain’s body was found, there was a plastic bag consistent with the bags that Village Market uses and in the bag was an empty Steel Reserve bottle and next to the bottle in the bag was a knife that had been bent from the force used upon it covered in reddish brown stains. There was also blonde hair appearing to belong to the victim on that knife. The knife was recovered and sent for testing,” Walker testified.
Agent Walker said that he was notified of the stabbing at around 2:00 p.m. that day and arrived on the scene at around 3:30 p.m. He described what he observed . ” I arrived on the scene after I received the call. We set up a perimeter for the crime scene. Mr. Crews (who was on the scene) was transported to be interviewed by another agent. I conducted a crime scene investigation. The first thing we noticed was that the front door was ajar. The frame was off the door. We went through the house and saw reddish brown stains which we assumed to be blood throughout the house leading back to the back left bedroom. And then we encountered Ms. Bain’s body. She was found on the left side of the bed, near the foot of the bed close to the wall. The manner of death (according to the autopsy) was multiple stab wounds. They could confidently say that there were at least fifteen (stab wounds). They could not establish the estimated time of death,” testified Agent Walker.
” Mr. Crews (who was at the scene) was disheveled. He was repeating himself over and over again. He appeared to be incoherent and he had a strong odor of alcohol on him. My understanding was that he and Ms. Bain were in a relationship and he stayed at the house at times throughout the week off and on. His clothing had what appeared to be blood. His long sleeved shirt, pants, and shoes all had reddish brown stains on them. His hands had what appeared to be dried blood. His clothing was sent to the lab for testing,” said Walker
“Samples of blood were taken from designated areas inside the home and sent to the crime lab for analysis including from the floor of the hallway, bedroom, dining/kitchen area, and a number of other items such as the knife and Bain’s wallet, which was found between two trash bags filled with trash (one on top of the other) in the kitchen. The wallet had about $1,400 in it. We also found more money (another $1,600 or $1,700) that appeared to come from the same source in the bedroom,” Walker testified.
As for the broken front door, Agent Walker said Crews had reported to the Sheriff’s Department in January that it had been damaged in an attempted break-in. “The Sheriff’s Office let me know that a report had been filed on January 26 for a supposed break-in. I think Crews filed the report that somebody had broke the door. I re-secured it before I left. It seemed secure,” Agent Walker testified.
After listening to the testimony, Judge Cook said he found probable cause to bind the case against Crews to the Grand Jury, which convenes again next month and to increase his bond to $2 million. Following the hearing, Crews was transported back to a facility in another county where he is being held.