Oak Ridge Today

Appeals court upholds attempted murder conviction

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Curtis-Isabell-McKinley-McGee-Sentencing-Sept-9-2019
McKinnley Earl McGee, 51, of Oak Ridge, who is pictured above at right, was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, for an attempted murder during a stabbing that injured a woman so severely that she would have died if she hadn’t received medical treatment, a judge and prosecutor said. At left is defense attorney Curtis Isabell. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld an attempted murder conviction against an Oak Ridge man who received the maximum 20-year prison sentence for a stabbing that injured a woman so severely that she reportedly would have died if she hadn’t received medical treatment.

McKinnley McGee was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury two years ago, after a one-day trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in July 2019. He was convicted of stabbing and trying to kill Machel Elaine Avery on Utica Circle in Oak Ridge on January 12, 2018.

Curtis-Isabell-McKinley-McGee-Sentencing-Sept-9-2019

McKinnley Earl McGee, of Oak Ridge, who is pictured above at right, was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, for an attempted murder during a stabbing that injured a woman so severely that she would have died if she hadn’t received medical treatment, a judge and prosecutor said. At left is defense attorney Curtis Isabell. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld an attempted murder conviction against an Oak Ridge man who received the maximum 20-year prison sentence for a stabbing that injured a woman so severely that she reportedly would have died if she hadn’t received medical treatment.

McKinnley McGee was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury two years ago, after a one-day trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in July 2019. He was convicted of stabbing and trying to kill Machel Elaine Avery on Utica Circle in Oak Ridge on January 12, 2018.

McGee was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison in September that year. That was based in part on his extensive criminal record, which includes at least eight felony convictions and seven misdemeanors dating back 30 years in Anderson County and California, according to court records and information provided during the sentencing hearing.

In his appeal, McGee had questioned whether the evidence was sufficient to support his conviction for attempted second-degree murder. He argued that prosecutors had failed to prove that he acted in a way that was intended and reasonably certain to cause Avery’s death, the appeals court said.

But in an opinion published April 9, the appeals court found that the evidence was sufficient. The opinion has not been previously reported.

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Appeals court upholds murder verdict, life sentence

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Information from WYSH Radio The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals last week upheld the first-degree murder conviction of a man who killed his mother-in-law with a hatchet while his infant daughter was in a nearby room nearly seven years ago. Robert Fritts was convicted in the March 2007 death of Teresa Busler, who died from multiple blows to the head from a hatchet and had a white paint-like substance sprayed on her face. Fritts and his wife—the victim’s daughter—and their infant daughter had been living at the family’s Andersonville home at the time of the murder. The baby was found unharmed in another bedroom when Busler’s husband returned home and discovered the grisly crime scene. The case was somewhat noteworthy as prosecutors introduced evidence that Fritts was part of a group of so-called “jugalos,” or fans of rap group Insane Clown Posse. Insane Clown Posse band members often wear white, clown-style face makeup and their record label—Psychopathic Records—uses a picture of a hatchet-wielding man as its logo. In his appeal, Fritts’ attorneys argued that it was “improper for prosecutors to submit evidence of his affiliation with the rap group or suggesting that the band or its followers were a gang.” He also argued there was not sufficient evidence to establish that Busler’s murder was premeditated. [Read more…]

Appeals court sides with Powell-Clinch utility commissioners

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Information from WYSH Radio

The commissioners of the Powell-Clinch Utility District scored a legal victory last week in their dispute with the state’s Utility Management Review Board when an appeals court overturned a lower court’s ruling that they could be held liable for, and removed from office, for acts that allegedly occurred before a change in state law in 2009.

The issue before the appeals court was to determine if the three commissioners—Charles Oldham, Jerry Shattuck, and Charles Taylor—could be removed from office based on a change in state law that went into effect in June of 2009 which added an amendment that “failing to fulfill the commissioner or commissioners’ fiduciary responsibility in the operation or oversight of the district” would be considered as one of the possible grounds for the removal of utility even if the alleged acts occurred before the amendment went into effect. [Read more…]