Surveillance footage, disputed accounts, and years of neighborhood conflict now sit at the center of the battery case.
Tony Spell, 48, the pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, Louisiana, was arrested on a second-degree battery charge June 23 after surveillance video recorded him crossing four lanes of Hooper Road, engaging in a fight with his 20-year-old neighbor’s son, and delivering 35 punches to the young man’s head and chest before tackling him to the ground. The victim was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries that included a cut requiring stitches.
Spell, whose full name is Mark Anthony Spell, was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison and bonded out the same evening on $25,000. That night, he returned to Life Tabernacle Church and took the pulpit. Referencing Mark 16:18, a verse describing signs that will follow believers, Spell told his congregation he had fulfilled Scripture.
“I fulfilled the scripture, I laid hands on the sick,” Spell said to applause. “I don’t know how much recovery they’re gonna have, but I laid hands on the sick. Hallelujah.”
He then implied the beating was long overdue.
The arrest stemmed from an altercation that began around 11 a.m. as Spell was working on a church bus in the parking lot. According to Spell, the neighbor’s son, identified by local media as a member of the Sherwin family who live across the street, walked along the highway shoulder and shouted obscenities before delivering a string of explicit threats. Spell’s account, repeated at a press conference the following day, was that the man threatened to rape his wife and all of his grandchildren, and promised to kill his family the next time Spell left town.
Spell’s arrest warrant describes the exchange more briefly, noting the neighbor yelled an expletive. The Sherwin family told local media they do not believe their son made the threats Spell described.
Surveillance footage from the Sherwins’ home security system, obtained by WAFB, shows Spell running across the highway toward the young man. Video from a second angle, released by the family, appears to show the neighbor swinging first as Spell charged at him. According to The Advocate, Spell then landed eight punches before taking the neighbor to the ground, where he struck him an additional 27 times, the majority to the head and chest. Spell also threw the neighbor’s cellphone into the street during the altercation.
At a press conference outside the church Wednesday, Spell and his attorney Jeffrey Wittenbrink said the confrontation was the breaking point of a years-long harassment campaign against Spell, his family, and his congregation. Spell described his church as racially diverse, with members from 27 countries and a number of recovering addicts, and said congregants had been subjected to racial slurs, threats, and intimidation by neighbors across the street. He labeled the Sherwin family “domestic terrorists” and accused local law enforcement of failing to respond adequately to repeated complaints.
Wittenbrink framed the outcome as a failure of the system. “Every man has his limits, and it’s sad when you get pushed to that point,” Wittenbrink said. He added that the head of the Sherwin household had allegedly told media he wished he had a Kalashnikov to “solve the problem.”
The Central Police Department pushed back directly. Chief Roger Corcoran issued a statement saying his department’s records show only five incidents involving the Spells over four years, only one of which involved a complaint against neighbors. Corcoran challenged Spell to supply specific dates and times for any additional complaints, saying the department’s recorded systems would be audited if that information were provided. “I would defend Mr. Spell, Mrs. Spell, their family, their kids, just as well as I would defend anybody in the city of Central,” Corcoran said.
The Sherwins offered a different explanation for the timing of the attack. They told WBRZ that Spell had recently lost the latest round in a long-running federal lawsuit he filed against former Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, Corcoran, and East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux over COVID-19 restrictions. In 2020, Spell was issued six misdemeanor summonses by Central Police for continuing to hold church services during the pandemic. He later sued the Sherwins and added them to that litigation, alleging they had cooperated with officials to install surveillance equipment aimed at monitoring his church. That suit was dismissed in 2024 and thrown out again on appeal shortly before the June 23 incident. “This is Pastor Spell lashing out, like he always does, when he doesn’t get his way,” the Sherwins said.
He is scheduled for a court appearance Sept. 15.
