An evaluation was scheduled Wednesday for an Anderson County teenager who allegedly shot and killed his mother while she was sleeping after she punished him by taking away his cell phone, according to court records.
The evaluation for Shawn Tyler Willis, 19, of Rocky Top, had previously been ordered by Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Ryan Spitzer at the request of defense attorney Brennan Lenihan.
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An Anderson County teenager allegedly shot and killed his mother while she was sleeping after she punished him by taking away his cell phone, according to court records.
Shawn Tyler Willis, 18, of Rocky Top, has been charged with first-degree murder.
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Shawn Willis
An Anderson County teenager allegedly shot and killed his mother while she was sleeping after she punished him by taking away his cell phone, according to court records.
Shawn Tyler Willis, 18, of Rocky Top, has been charged with first-degree murder. He allegedly shot his mother, Sandy K. Willis, 38, in the left side of her head as she lay in bed asleep on Andy’s Ridge Road between Briceville and Rocky Top on Monday morning April 20, 2020.
Shawn Willis
An Anderson County teenager allegedly shot and killed his mother while she was sleeping after she punished him by taking away his cell phone, according to court records.
Shawn Tyler Willis, 18, of Rocky Top, has been charged with first-degree murder.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member.
If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to: Oak Ridge TodayP.O. Box 6064Oak Ridge, TN 37831 We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here. We also accept donations. You can donate here. A donation of $50 or more will make you eligible for a subscription. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Norman Lee Follis Jr., 56, of Anderson County, who killed his uncle, Samuel “Sammie†J. Adams, 79, and shoved his body in an apartment closet more than seven years ago. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 2:15 p.m.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of an Anderson County man convicted of killing his uncle and shoving his body into an apartment closet more than seven years ago.
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The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Norman Lee Follis Jr., 56, of Anderson County, who killed his uncle, Samuel “Sammie†J. Adams, 79, and shoved his body in an apartment closet more than seven years ago. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of an Anderson County man convicted of killing his uncle and shoving his body into an apartment closet more than seven years ago.
The court upheld the conviction, which led to a lifetime sentence without parole, in a 14-page opinion filed Friday, October 18.
The defendant, Norman Lee Follis Jr., 56, had told a detective that he killed his uncle, Samuel “Sammie” J. Adams, 79, after he saw Adams on top of his girlfriend, groping her and refusing to stop. When he tried to pull his uncle off of his girlfriend, Follis said, his uncle turned and attacked him. Follis said Adams had him down on the floor, and he couldn’t get out from under Adams, so he grabbed the first thing he could, a heater cord, and wrapped it around his uncle’s neck until Adams let go.
Prosecutors characterized Follis’ explanation for the killing—the defense of a third party followed by self-defense—as a story that he latched onto and then elaborated upon during an interview with Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Detective Don Scuglia in January 2012. Two hours of taped interviews with Scuglia were “full of lies,†Tony Craighead, deputy district attorney general in the Seventh Judicial District, said during the trial in May 2016. Prosecutors called it murder, a premeditated killing that profited Follis and his girlfriend, Tammy Sue Chapman, now 51. They said Follis misled family, neighbors, and law enforcement officers about where Adams was that last month—before his body was found in a Patt Lane apartment closet on January 24, 2012—and they cited testimony that Follis sold Adams’ car for $1,000 cash on January 16, 2012.
In his appeal, which was filed last year, Follis argued that the state had failed to prove premeditation and didn’t show that a deadly weapon was used. He said prosecutors didn’t have a declaration of his intent to kill Adams.
But the state and appeals court disagreed, saying premeditation was established by Follis’ actions during and after his uncle’s death. Among other factors, those actions included placing the electrical heater cord around Adams’ neck and using it as a deadly weapon, hiding the body in a closet and pushing a couch in front of the closet door to conceal it, and using his uncle’s car after his death.
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Samuel “Sammie” J. Adams, who was killed at 79, is pictured above about five years before his death, which the man convicted of his murder, his nephew Norman Lee Follis Jr., said occurred in December 2011. (Photo courtesy Sandra Follis)
CLINTON—An Anderson County jury is deliberating the sentence for Norman Lee Follis Jr., 52, who was convicted on Tuesday of first-degree murder. The death penalty is one option.
The other two options are life without parole and life. No matter what happens, defense attorney Mart Cizek said, Follis will die in prison. Life with the possibility of parole has a 51-year minimum sentence, meaning Follis would be 103 before he would be eligible for release, if he receives the life sentence with the possibility of parole.
The jury convicted Follis on Tuesday of first-degree murder in the death of his uncle, Samuel “Sammie” J. Adams, 79, sometime between December 2011 and January 2012. Adams’ decomposing body was found on January 24, 2012, under a pile of at least 10 blankets in a closet under an apartment staircase on Patt Lane in Claxton after he was reported missing. He had been strangled. [Read more…]
Norman Lee Follis Jr., 52, is facing the death penalty as a possible sentence after being convicted of first-degree murder in Anderson County Circuit and Criminal Court on Tuesday, May 10, 2016, for killing his uncle in Claxton more than four years ago. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 11:15 a.m. May 11.
CLINTON—An Anderson County man who is facing the death penalty as a possible sentence was found guilty of first-degree murder on Tuesday for killing his uncle in Claxton more than four years ago.
A jury of eight women and four men deliberated for about one hour and 40 minutes before unanimously returning the guilty verdict against Norman Lee Follis Jr., 52,  in Anderson County Circuit and Criminal Court in Clinton. Follis was convicted of killing his uncle, Samuel “Sammie” J. Adams, 79, sometime between December 5, 2011, and January 24, 2012.
It was the first death penalty trial in Anderson County since 1991, officials said.
Adams’ body was found hidden underneath an apartment staircase on Patt Lane in Claxton on January 24, 2012, after he was reported missing in December 2011. His decomposing body was buried under at least 10 blankets, and a couch had been shoved up against the door of the closet where Adams was hidden, according to testimony.
Defense attorneys did not dispute that Follis killed his uncle, a Korean War veteran.
“We cannot whitewash that out,†attorney Mart Cizek said. [Read more…]
