Brewer sentenced in dance hall cutting

Feb. 7– Joe L. Brewer will serve 30 days behind bars for seriously injuring a senior citizen at a dance at the Cerro Gordo Community Center.

Brewer, 64, 95 Hames Cemetery Lane, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in Hardin County Circuit Court on Thursday and was given a three year sentence. He is to be incarcerated 30 days, with the balance on probation, according to the court clerk’s office.

In an apparent dispute revolving around a woman Brewer called his girlfriend, Brewer cut Larry J. Smith of Shady Grove Loop on the chest and arms "several times" with a knife on April 2, 2011. Smith, who was 69 at the time, had to be airlifted from the scene to a Jackson hospital for treatment as a result of the injuries, the record shows.

"The doctor told me they almost lost me a couple of times," Smith told The Courier last May.

In a statement to authorities, Brewer said Smith asked his girlfriend to dance, and he told him he "didn’t like it and to leave us alone."

He claimed Smith had threatened him, saying he "didn’t back up from nobody, and he told me that he had cut some people in the past."

Brewer said when he saw Smith approaching him on the night of the incident, "I went into a panic attack and my mind went blank. I don’t remember what happened. Really I don’t even know if I was the one that cut him or not."

A pre-sentencing report in the court record states Brewer is currently in poor health and takes a number of medications daily.

Smith has denied provoking the attack.