August 26,2004
Mark Lineberger
Staff Writer
Kenneth Thigpen bit off Mark Conway's ear in a fight more than a year ago at a Kinston restaurant. He just didn't do it on purpose.
So said the jury after nearly two hours of deliberation in Lenoir County Superior Court Wednesday, the end of a trial spanning three days.
Thigpen, 35, of Kinston, was convicted of misdemeanor assault for his role in a March 2003 fight at Ham's Restaurant on North Heritage Street.
Thigpen shook his head as Judge Paul Jones sentenced him to 75 days in prison. A few family members cried.
But that misdemeanor conviction is far less serious than the original felonies he faced of maiming and assault with a deadly weapon - charges that could have gotten him has much as seven years behind bars.
Conway and his family were at Ham's that March night to celebrate his daughter's crowning as Kinston's Junior Miss. Thigpen was at the bar, enjoying a night out with his brother-in-law. But the evening turned ugly when a misunderstanding between Thigpen and Conway led to a brawl on the floor.
Sometime during that fight, Conway lost an ear before running from the restaurant bleeding.
The guilty verdict came after multiple witnesses with different stories about the night and despite the testimony of Dr. Charles Garrett, a certified forensic pathologist with nearly 40 years of experience. Garrett told jurors that he didn't believe the ear was bitten off and that blunt trauma to the side of Conway's head was the likely culprit.
Garrett's expert opinion contradicted earlier testimony by a plastic surgeon and an emergency room doctor, both of whom treated Conway, then 43, within hours of the fight.
Defense attorneys Keith Williams and Dal Wooten contended that the lack of blood on Thigpen that night made it unlikely that he had bitten off Conway's ear - there was no blood on Thigpen's face or mouth.
The attorneys offered a different version of how Conway lost his ear, theorizing that at some point in the struggle Conway struck his ear against the sharp edge of an overturned bar stool leg, causing the ear to rip.
Garrett maintained his innocence when Williams asked him why he was sure he didn't bite Conway's ear.
"That's just not an idea I would entertain as a human being," Thigpen said.
The defense asked the jury to consider the testimony of several Ham's employees who said they didn't see Conway's ear bitten as opposed to the testimony of Conway's friends and family. Williams implored the jury to listen to Garrett's opinion, which came from an experienced doctor who works for the state. Garrett is medical examiner for Jones and Onslow counties.
But Assistant District Attorney Imelda Pate tried to hit jurors emotionally during her closing arguments, asking them not to "ignore the voice of the injured."
"Imagine teeth clamping down on your ear, and then feeling them pull back and rip it away from your head," Pate said. "Then imagine watching that person spit the ear out before your eyes. That's what Mark Conway went through."
While several jury members said after the trial that they didn't think Thigpen went through those actions so deliberately, they nonetheless believed he bit the ear off.
Jackie Jones, Conway's mother-in-law, is pressing charges against Thigpen. She testified that during the fight, she was knocked over. That charge is still pending in district court.
Mark Lineberger can be reached at (252) 527-3191, Ext. 251, or Mark_Lineberger@link.freedom.com.
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