Local & State Headlines

One suspect charged in pool hall assault

• The suspect told police that he wanted the victim to see what it was like to be sucker punched, police reports show.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — Police say that an man attempted to settle a score by beating someone with a pool cue at an Albany lounge early Saturday morning, fracturing his skull, police reports show.

Thomas Nesmith, 50, was jailed, charged with aggravated assault. He was released from the Dougherty County Jail Saturday on a $3,500 bond, jail officials said.

According to reports made available by the Albany Police Department, Nesmith admitted to police that he struck John “Bubba” Kennedy, 45, multiple times in the head with a pool cue at Oglethorpe Lounge, saying that the incident was instigated when Kennedy knocked a few of his teeth loose with a sucker punch about three weeks ago.

In his statement to investigators, Nesmith said that when he saw Kennedy enter the lounge Friday night, he went to his truck and pulled a pool cue he said he keeps as a defense weapon and went back into the lounge because he “wanted Bubba to see what it felt like to cheap shot or sucker punch someone,” the report says.

According to the report, Nesmith told police he struck Kennedy three times with the small end of the cue, although other witnesses said that he may have struck the victim as many as eight times.

Kennedy was taken to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital where he was taken to the surgical intensive care unit with a skull fracture, the report shows.

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