FARMINGTON — A Wilton woman and a Rumford man were acquitted Thursday of aggravated assault charges related to an alleged ax and meat cleaver attack on a Farmington man and his girlfriend on April 4, according to Franklin County Superior Court documents.

The woman, Shari Dupree, 32, was also acquitted of lesser charges related to the incident while the jury remained deadlocked on the misdemeanor crimes the man, Brian Sweeney, 32, was charged with.

Justice Michaela Murphy declared the jury deadlocked on Sweeney’s two misdemeanor accounts of assault and the charges will be put back on the docket in June if prosecutors decide to pursue them.

The jury deliberated for about six hours before acquitting Dupree, who was arrested on a warrant in April and charged with aggravated assault, burglary, assault and criminal mischief.

Dupree and Sweeney were accused of attacking Jeremiah Gattis and Stephanie Buzzell in Gattis’s Poverty Lane mobile home over a dispute about a tattoo Sweeney received from Gattis.

Gattis said at the time he was covered in blood by the end of the alleged attack and required medical attention for his injuries.

 


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