According to Harvey Westmoreland, it all started when his brother Joseph was doing some work for Troy Holt. As Westmoreland put it, “My brother was cleaning out the stalls out there for Troy, you know, working for him. They called and wanted me to come around there and when I got there, I realized they were already drunk.”
Needless to say, Westmoreland already had a feeling things weren’t going to turn out well. But what ended up transpiring was beyond bizarre.
Apparently Holt had offered to buy an old lawnmower from Westmoreland for $250. Since Westmoreland had only paid $20 for the lawnmower, Holt considered he was being cheated and wasn’t very pleased. Westmoreland reported that: “One thing lead to another, and before I knew it, there were knives and guns and everything just went haywire.”
By the time the dust had settled, Westmoreland’s brother had knife marks on his neck and Westmoreland’s beard had been cut off and force fed to him. That’s right…he was forced to eat his own beard. “They cut my beard and forced me to eat it,” he reported.
Even though Holt and his friend James Hill let the brothers go, they threatened to kill the them if they attempted to report the incident to the police. Luckily that didn’t stop Westmoreland from calling 911.
As a result, both Troy Holt and James Hill have pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced next Tuesday in Lawrenceburg Circuit Court. After all that Westmoreland doesn’t hold a grudge. He said “I believe in the law. I believe that justice has been served, and it will be after Tuesday.”
