Trial Set For Man Charged In Father’s Death

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – A 21-year-old man who authorities said went to lunch shortly after he shot his father in the chest will be tried before a Sullivan County jury next July.

On Wednesday, Sullivan County Circuit Court Judge R. Jerry Beck set a July 26, 2010, court date for Eric John Lambert, who is being held in the Sullivan County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

Lambert is charged with second-degree murder in the April 2008 shooting death of his father.

On the day his father was fatally shot, Lambert went to the Daystar Café in Bristol where he had a hot dog and fries for lunch while reading the Bible. He left the café, but later two of the restaurant’s patrons found him pacing the street outside his father’s home. They said Lambert asked if he could use their cell phone to dial 911 because his father had been shot.

One month later, Lambert was arrested and charged. He pleaded not guilty in October.

Lambert and his attorney, Public Defender Stephen Wallace, were in court Wednesday to discuss an examination of Lambert’s mental condition at the time of his father’s death. In the year before the shooting, Lambert received treatment at mental health facilities in Knoxville, Tenn., St. Louis and Carthage, N.C.

But on Wednesday, Wallace waived a hearing on that issue, which has already been postponed twice this year, and asked Beck to set a court date so Lambert did not have to wait much longer for his trial.

Wallace said he would continue to evaluate Lambert’s mental condition as the trial date approached. He has not scheduled any other court appearances for Lambert prior to next year’s trial.

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