Days before Chud the Builder, real name Dalton Eatherly, secured a million dollar bond in Clarksville, his attorney was working the system in Nashville to ensure his client wouldn't have to go back to jail.
Davidson County Court records show Eatherly was given a $15,000 bond for his misdemeanor theft, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest cases in Nashville and paid it the same day, on Aug. 6.
A Montgomery County jail official said Aug. 11 that Eatherly, a rage-baiting online personality, had been released and was no longer in their custody. He had been in Montgomery County Court one day earlier, officials said.
Repeated attempts to contact Eatherly's lawyer Jacob Fendley were unsuccessful on Aug. 10-11.
Davidson County Judge Melissa Blackburn
had revoked Eatherly's bond in June in his three Nashville cases, all of which came days before he was involved in a shooting outside the Montgomery County Courthouse.
Fendley filed a motion requesting a new bond be set in Davidson County on June 29. He stressed in the motion that Eatherly was currently incarcerated in Montgomery County and "has several onerous bail conditions."
Here's everything we know.
What was Eatherly charged with in Montgomery County?
The Clarksville contractor was arrested May 13 and charged with attempted murder, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon after a shooting involving Joshua Fox, a Black man, outside the Montgomery County Courthouse. He also has a separate pending Montgomery County case stemming from a Nov. 18 arrest on harassment charges, according to an affidavit from Montgomery County General Sessions Court.
What happened in Nashville?
Eatherly was arrested May 9 after Nashville police said he walked out on a nearly $400 restaurant tab. Officers later found him walking on Broadway near 2nd Avenue South. When they tried to take Eatherly into custody, he "pulled his arm away," but was otherwise arrested without incident, the affidavit said.
Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
What happened outside the courthouse?
Witnesses testified in May that Eatherly and Fox were involved in a verbal altercation that turned physical before shots were fired. Both were injured. Seven shell casings were found on the scene.
The exchange and aftermath were recorded on surveillance and parts were livestreamed by Eatherly.
The case was bound over to a Montgomery County grand jury at the end of a May 21 hearing. The harassment case against Eatherly was bound over to a grand jury in April.
What were the details of the bond?
Eatherly's bond was set at $1 million in the Clarksville case.
His lawyer said a Texas businessman had put up $500,000 in savings to cover half the cost. He also said one of the owners of the gambling website Dual.com was willing to personally send LA Bonding $1 million to cover Eatherly’s bond.
LA Bonding was prepared to bond him out, with $1 million in insurance.
But, the judge said he wouldn't allow one bondsman to take on the full $1 million bond, citing a policy followed by judges that caps a per-bondsman amount at $75,000. He raised the amount to $100,000 in Eatherly's case, but Eatherly would still need 10 bondsman to fund the full $1 million.
Only one or two bondsmen in Montgomery County were willing to take the case, Fendley said during the June hearing.
What are the bond conditions?
Two Montgomery County judges set the following conditions for Eatherly:
- A GPS monitor
- No firearms.
- No contact with Fox or family, by him or a third party.
- A stop on his passport application, and if complete, he must surrender it.
- A gag order, prohibiting him or any of the state's witnesses from commenting on the trial on social media.
- A curfew, where Eatherly must remain in his home from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. every day.
The Nashville bond conditions added house arrest for Eatherly and no access to the Internet.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Chud the Builder managed to get out, stay out of 2 Middle TN jails
