Hearing date delayed for sword stabbing suspect

The hearing date for an Oak Ridge man accused of stabbing another man with a sword has been postponed until Oct. 4, attorney Marty Cizek said.

Cizek said a psychiatric evaluation that was ordered on July 24 for Jeffrey John Smith, 30, is not complete. Smith had been scheduled to have an Aug. 28 hearing in General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge.

The evaluation at Ridgeview Psychiatric Hospital could determine whether Smith is competent to stand trial. It could also determine his “mental capacity at the time of the commission of his alleged offenses,” according to the court order, signed by General Sessions Court Judge Ronald Murch.

Smith is accused of stabbing Michael Showalter of Johnson Road after a fistfight at a Van Hicks Place apartment on July 13, according to Anderson County court records.

Cizek said he requested the evaluation based on the alleged facts and “some other information that became available,” although he did not elaborate.

Showalter was reportedly taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center after he was stabbed and later discharged. Smith remains jailed at the Anderson County Detention Facility in lieu of $1 million bond.