Phillip Brandon Trewhitt
A Chattanooga man was arrested on charges of attempted second-degree murder after the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department said he started stabbing another man in the neck.
Michael Shane Cavitt, 26, told deputies he had been letting his friend Phillip Brandon Trewhitt, 27, stay at his home. He said they were both sitting around when all of a sudden, Trewhitt jumped up and began to stab him.
When deputies arrived at the home, Cavitt had a cloth wrapped around his neck and blood covering his face.
He said he had known Trewhitt all of his life and that this was completely out of character.
Because Trewhitt had already fled the scene, deputies went to his last known address to search for him. They found him walking in the road and arrested him.
According to deputies, while at first he did not want to speak, he eventually decided to tell them his side of the story.
Trewhitt, whose address was given as an apartment on Waconda Road, said he had been fighting with his uncle on the phone when Cavitt began to hit him because "he was taking too long on the phone." He told deputies he grabbed a knife from Cavitt's kitchen counter and stabbed Cavitt to defend himself.
Cavitt had to undergo surgery at Erlanger Hospital for his injuries.
Trewhitt is scheduled to appear before Sessions Court Judge Clarence Shattuck on June 23.