The verdict is guilty and the sentence 15 years

An Oconee County man, found guilty by a General Session jury, was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. The two-day trial finished today, and defendant Clifton Eugene Smith did not testify in his defense. Smith’s lawyer tried to make the case for self defense. But the jury heard prosecution witnesses say that inside a moving car on Davis Creek Road the night after Christmas in 2017, Smith turned and used a pocket knife to cut the son of a woman with whom he had had a relationship. Testimony indicated that while the mother was driving, passengers Smith and victim Michael Thomas Reid argued and the stabbings followed Reid’s slapping Smith.