UPDATE: Arrest made in stabbing case

Published 4:23 pm Saturday, July 2, 2011

Crime scene tape ropes off part of Liberty Street on Friday night. (PHOTO BY CLANTON PD)

A man whose neck was cut July 1 in West End is recovering at home while a suspect has been arrested.

James Lee Woods, 54, of Chilton County was arrested Saturday and charged in a stabbing that happened Friday night in the 300th block of Liberty Street.

Officers responded to a call of shots fired about 8 p.m. on July 1. They found a crime scene but no victim, according to Police Chief Brian Stilwell.

Shortly thereafter, Clanton Police got a phone call from Chilton Medical Center concerning a patient who arrived in the emergency room with a stab wound to the neck.

“The patient was our victim from Liberty Street,” Stilwell said.

The victim, also 54, was later airlifted to UAB with critical injuries but is now recovering at his home near where the incident occurred, according to CPD Capt. David Clackley.

Clackley said the victim suffered a severe cut around his neck.

Stilwell said witnesses told police the victim got in an argument with another man. Their accounts led investigators to Woods, Clackley said.

Woods has been charged with assault first degree and is being held in Chilton County Jail under $10,000 bond.

Anyone with information about the case should contact Detective Whitney Ray with Clanton Police at 755-1194.