KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A West Knox County man has been found not guilty of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment after confronting a 14-year-old boy following a "ding-dong ditching" incident in 2021.
Jurors deliberated several hours Wednesday before acquitting Jeff Cheek, 43, in Knox County Criminal Court. Cheek's trial started Monday.
Over several months in 2021, Cheek and his family endured repeated incidents in which teens would knock, often late at night, on his door and then run. He lived in a gated community in West Knox County, and teens specifically targeted his door, testimony showed.
One night in June 2021, after another pranking incident, got in his vehicle where the gun was already located and went looking for the offenders.
He found one of them hiding in woods and confronted him. The boy was 14 at the time.
Called by the prosecution this week, the boy testified Cheek pointed the gun at him and threatened to shoot him. According to the boy, Cheek also used the gun in a threatening manner to get him to ride in his vehicle so they could go back to the home where he was spending the night with friends.
The boy testified he was not the one who knocked on Cheek's door. He also testified he never set foot on the Cheek property.
Cheek and his attorney, Jonathan Cooper, offered a different version of events.
Cheek told jurors that while he did have a gun, he never pointed it at the boy and never tried to use it to threaten the boy.
After a door-knocking incident earlier in the year, he'd warned one of the boys to stop the pranks and never come back to his property, testimony showed.
Cooper told jurors Monday in his opening statement that the trial very likely would come down to them deciding which of the two key witnesses they believed -- Cheek or the boy.