A Ringgold man from a prominent family will stay behind bars until his methamphetamine distribution case ends.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Steger said during a detention hearing Wednesday that Wesley Gage Weldon, 42, is a threat to the community. If he's free, a prosecutor argued, Weldon may order an attack against someone who has betrayed him. And there's a chance he won't show up to his trial, scheduled for July 3.
In January, according to a Catoosa County Sheriff's Office report, Weldon's associates beat a man because they believed he stole $500 from Weldon. In a field across from his house on Potts Road, the group allegedly punched Zach Williams, pistol whipped him, bound his wrists with duct tape, stripped him nude, rolled a bale of hay on top of him, and abandoned him.
Also, according to Wednesday testimony from Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Derek Brown, Weldon helped attack another man involved in the alleged methamphetamine conspiracy. The victim, James Lawhorn, supposedly sold Weldon's Galaxy Note tablet at a pawn shop. In turn, Brown testified, Weldon and others forced Lawhorn to walk around a house in high heels and a pink T-shirt. Then, someone pistol whipped him and forced him to lick his own blood off the floor.
"That sort of thing suggests an element of cruelty that is extremely disturbing to the court and is beyond the sort of thing I normally hear," Steger said Wednesday.
On March 28, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Tennessee indicted Weldon and eight other people on a count of conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of a substance that contains methamphetamine. The grand jury also indicted Weldon individually with distributing methamphetamine.
Weldon is the brother of former Georgia State Rep. Tom Weldon, R-Ringgold. He is also the son of Dr. Darrell Weldon, a popular OB-GYN in North Georgia who served as the chairman of Hutcheson Medical Center's board. He also has a rap sheet in Catoosa County that includes shooting a friend in the leg and threatening an ex over the phone.
In January 2016, Brown testified, an undercover agent met Weldon in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart on Brainerd Road through one of Weldon's alleged customers. Weldon said he had been selling methamphetamine for a long time but only had 1.2 grams of the drug on that day.
Brown said Weldon's phone records show he made calls to a Mexico phone number linked to the subject of another methamphetamine distribution case. Another DEA target also allegedly told investigators that he sold the drug to Weldon.
Weldon's attorney, Chris Townley, argued the evidence hardly shows his client is a prominent dealer. He barely sold more than 1 gram of methamphetamine during the controlled buy. And as for the attack in January, for which Weldon faces an attempted murder charge, the evidence never showed Weldon at the scene of the crime.
And though others claim Weldon orchestrated that attack, Townley said Williams didn't think Weldon caused his pain.
"After Mr. Williams got out of the hospital," Townley said on cross examination, "he went back to Mr. Weldon's house."
"I don't know that," Brown testified.
But Steger still ruled against Townley, saying Weldon has resisted police orders in the past. In January, when he found out the sheriff's office had issued warrants against him for attempted murder, Weldon called Catoosa County Capt. Chris Lyons. He said he wanted to talk to Lyons "man to man" but didn't want officers coming to his house.
"Either you're going to kill me, or," Weldon started to say, a recording of the call played Wednesday shows. Weldon paused for a second.
"I don't want to kill nobody else," he said. "You know what I mean?"
When officers arrived at Weldon's house that day, they found a man speeding off on a motorcycle. They also found a message spray painted on a building next to the house: "[Expletive] you DTF. ... I'm coming for you!!"
U.S. marshals found him in Rossville soon after.
Contact Staff Writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.