• About
    • About Us
    • What We Cover
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Our Advertisers
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Send News
  • Subscribe

Oak Ridge Today

  • Home
  • Sign in
  • News
    • Business
    • Community
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Police and Fire
    • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Weather
  • Sports
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Recreation
    • Rowing
    • Youth
  • Entertainment
    • Arts
    • Dancing
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Premium Content
  • Obituaries
  • Classifieds




Tennessee Supreme Court will not hear Cromwell’s appeal

Posted at 1:13 pm January 29, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge resident Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens during a hearing in Nashville criminal court on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Supreme Court will not hear an appeal of a criminal case filed against Lee Harold Cromwell, who is now 69 and was convicted of reckless vehicular homicide in Anderson County Criminal Court two years ago after a fatal crash after fireworks in Oak Ridge in 2015. Cromwell is pictured above during a hearing in a Nashville criminal court on Wednesday, June 27, 2018, when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a separate case involving 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Tennessee Supreme Court will not hear an appeal of the criminal case filed against Lee Harold Cromwell, who was convicted of homicide after a fatal crash after fireworks in Oak Ridge in 2015.

Cromwell, who is now 69, had been convicted of reckless vehicular homicide and aggravated assault in Anderson County Criminal Court at the end of a three-day trial in February 2017.

But in July 2018, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Knoxville said Cromwell is eligible for a new trial on the aggravated assault charges. The court cited misleading and confusing jury instructions. The aggravated assault convictions, which were reversed by the appeals court, had helped to add seven years to Cromwell’s sentence.

The court upheld Cromwell’s one conviction of reckless vehicular homicide and his five-year sentence on that charge.

In August, Cromwell appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

In a one-sentence order in November, the court denied the application to appeal. The denial has not been reported previously.

The appellate case was closed November 15, according to state court records.

So far, no new trial has been ordered in Anderson County, and it hasn’t been clear if one will be. Cromwell already has an effective 30-year prison sentence from his five-year sentence on the vehicular homicide conviction in Anderson County and then, after that, a 25-year sentence on forgery and fraudulent liens convictions in Davidson County. That could be an effective life sentence, although as a standard offender with 30 percent release eligibility, Cromwell might not serve the entire 30-year sentence in prison.

In July, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said he would evaluate what action to take next.

“However, since Mr. Cromwell will remain in prison for many years yet, there is no rush to have him re-tried on an expedited basis,” Clark said at the time.

Clark was expected to consult with the victims—who would presumably have to testify at any new trial on the eight aggravated assault charges—and evaluate their best interests as well as those of the state.

The crash more than three years ago killed James Robinson, 37, a Knoxville husband and father who died pushing one of his two young daughters to safety, and it injured at least eight others. It occurred as Cromwell backed his red Dodge Ram pickup truck through the crowded parking lot at Midtown Community Center after fireworks on July 4, 2015. It is one of the worst crashes anyone can remember in Oak Ridge.

An Anderson County jury found Cromwell guilty of the one count of vehicular homicide and the eight counts of aggravated assault at the end of the three-day trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in February 2017.

He was sentenced to an effective 12 years in prison in June 2017. The effective sentence was a combination of consecutive and concurrent sentences for the nine total homicide and assault convictions.

The trial court judge was Senior Judge Paul G. Summers. He was appointed after Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge recused himself because of a lien filed against him by Cromwell.

That lien and others filed by Cromwell and others led to a second, separate case that was tried in Nashville, where five East Tennessee men who have been identified as “sovereign citizens” were sentenced to 20-50 years in prison in June after filing fraudulent liens worth hundreds of millions of dollars against public officials, law enforcement officers, and others.

The five defendants—who included Cromwell and Austin Gary Cooper of Clinton—had earlier been convicted of more than 200 counts of filing unlawful liens and forgery of more than $250,000. That was at the end of a six-day trial in Davidson County Criminal Court in Nashville in late April.

It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday afternoon whether any of those cases involving fraudulent liens have been appealed to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Most news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, contributors, and subscribers. This is a free story. Thank you to our advertisers, contributors, and subscribers. You can see what we cover here.


Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.

Copyright 2019 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Filed Under: Anderson County, Courts, Front Page News, Oak Ridge, Police and Fire, Tennessee, Top Stories Tagged With: aggravated assault, Anderson County Criminal Court, Dave Clark, fatal crash, forgery, fraudulent liens, James Robinson, Lee Harold Cromwell, reckless vehicular homicide, sovereign citizens, Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, Tennessee Supreme Court

Advertisements

 

Join the club!

If you appreciate our work, please consider subscribing. Besides helping us, your subscription will give you access to our premium content.

Most of our stories are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our members—advertisers, subscribers, and sponsors.

But some are premium content, available only to members. Those are in-depth, investigative, or exclusive stories that are available only on Oak Ridge Today. They generally require at least four hours to report, write, and publish.

You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month.

You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers, and they include benefits.

Basic

  • Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
  • Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

  • Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
  • Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

  • Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

If you prefer to send a check for a subscription or donation, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

Commenting Guidelines

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.

More Police and Fire News

Tower rebuilding complete, South Illinois re-opened overnight

The replacement of a large high-voltage transmission tower was completed Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, and South Illinois Avenue re-opened to traffic at about midnight. (Photo courtesy Tennessee Valley Authority) The … [Read More...]

South Illinois Avenue to re-open by midnight

South Illinois Avenue is expected to re-open by midnight Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, near the University of Tennessee Arboretum after being closed for more than two days because of a large high-voltage transmission tower that … [Read More...]

Photos: TVA transmission tower repair

Crews replace the Tennessee Valley Authority's high-voltage steel lattice transmission tower knocked over in a crash at Union Valley Road and South Illinois Avenue on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. (Photo courtesy City of Oak … [Read More...]

South Illinois could re-open Monday

Crews repair the damage to the Tennessee Valley Authority distribution system after a pickup truck crashed into a high-voltage steel lattice transmission tower, causing widespread power outages in Oak Ridge and the … [Read More...]

Crews repairing damage after crash knocks down power tower

Crews repair the damage to the Tennessee Valley Authority distribution system after a pickup truck crashed into a steel lattice transmission tower, causing widespread power outages in Oak Ridge and the surrounding area … [Read More...]

More Police and Fire

Recent Posts

  • NNSA has virtual job fair, including for Y-12
  • Tower rebuilding complete, South Illinois re-opened overnight
  • DOE photographer dies at 62
  • South Illinois Avenue to re-open by midnight
  • AC Democratic Women to hear about income inequality Monday
  • Photos: TVA transmission tower repair
  • South Illinois could re-open Monday
  • Crews repairing damage after crash knocks down power tower
  • Part of South Illinois Ave. remains closed
  • Power restored to Oak Ridge except for Arboretum

Recent Comments

  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Mark Caldwell on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Mark Caldwell on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Tracy Powers on Planning Commission to consider Main Street apartments, plan revisions
  • johnhuotari on Four incumbents re-elected to Oak Ridge City Council
  • Levi D. Smith on Four incumbents re-elected to Oak Ridge City Council
  • samuel hopwood on Housing: Apartments proposed on former AMSE site
  • Matt Bailey on Robin Smith named Oak Ridge police chief

Search Oak Ridge Today

About Us

About Oak Ridge Today
What We Cover

How To

Advertise
Subscribe

Contact Us

Contact Oak Ridge Today

Copyright © 2021 Oak Ridge Today