Oak Ridge Today

AC man charged with murder

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Calvin Humphrey

A 32-year-old Anderson County man has been charged with second-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault that seriously injured two people, including the person who died, according to indictments filed in October.

Calvin Brandon Humphrey, of Hickory Valley Road, in Heiskell, east of Norris, killed Jasper Baysinger on January 25, the four-count indictment alleged.

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Man sentenced to 8 years in drug death

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A 36-year-old Anderson County man was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison for delivering fentanyl and heroin to a 33-year-old Campbell County man who died about three years ago. The sentence was part of a plea agreement that led to the dismissal of a second-degree murder charge filed against Timothy Wayne Altum, who has a Rocky Top address.

In a plea agreement approved Wednesday, Altum also received two 12-year sentences on drug charges. One was for possessing more than 0.5 grams of methamphetamine for sale, and the other was for having heroin for sale.

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Oak Ridge man charged with murder in drug death

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Ronald Nicholas Bunch
Ronald Nicholas Bunch

An Oak Ridge man has been charged with second-degree murder in the drug-related death of another Oak Ridge man in February.

It could be the first time that anyone has been charged with murder, rather than homicide, for a drug-related fatality in Anderson County. There has been a previous case where a man was charged with and convicted of homicide in a drug overdose death.

The man who died on February 6 was Steven Douglas Scruggs, 34.

Indicted in his death was Ronald Nicholas Bunch, 28, of West Wadsworth Circle in Oak Ridge. Bunch’s indictment for second-degree murder on June 4 said he unlawfully and knowingly killed Scruggs through the unlawful distribution of a Schedule II controlled substance, and the drug caused Scruggs’ death. Second-degree murder is a Class A felony in Tennessee.

The charge of second-degree murder, part of a three-count indictment, doesn’t specifically say what drug killed Scruggs. But the second count of the indictment charged Bunch with possessing fentanyl, a Schedule II medication, for resale.

[Read more…]

DA: Granddaughter in murder case was malnourished, smothered

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Valerie Stenson

The young granddaughter who died in Oak Ridge in 2011 was malnourished and had been smothered, District Attorney General Dave Clark said Friday, after the child’s grandmother pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last Tuesday.

Emergency workers and law enforcement officers responded to a 911 call at Teller Village Apartments around 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 11, 2011. The grandmother, Valerie Stenson, now 54, was trying to revive her granddaughter, Manhattan Inman, using cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, Clark said in a press release Friday.

“An autopsy reveled that the child was malnourished, and the cause of death was smothering,” said Clark, who is DA in the Seventh Judicial District (Anderson County).

Manhattan was two years and nine months old when she died, Clark said.

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Grandmother sentenced to 30 years in murder plea deal

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Valerie Stenson

A grandmother pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder in the death of her young granddaughter in Oak Ridge eight years ago, and she was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Valerie Stenson, 54, who has an address listed in Knoxville, was ordered to serve 100 percent of her sentence.

Stenson had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of her granddaughter, Manhattan Inman, who was 18 months old when she was found dead in a home on Teller Village Lane on April 17, 2011.

The first-degree murder charge was reduced to second-degree murder as part of the plea deal entered in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Tuesday.

Prosecutors had once sought the death penalty against Stenson, but it was withdrawn in March 2018. Prosecutors cited mental health issues, expense, and the strain put on the local court system in death penalty cases.

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Man pleads guilty to murder in shooting in Walmart parking lot

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Robert Keith Myers

Robert Keith Myers

 

Note: This story was last updated at 5:33 p.m.

A 33-year-old man pleaded guilty to murder Monday after a shooting in the parking lot at the Walmart in Clinton last year, and he also pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping after severely beating and shooting at a woman near Briceville, authorities said.

Robert Keith “Robbie” Myers pleaded guilty on Monday to the second-degree murder of Marshall Pinsly on April 28, 2017, and he also pleaded guilty to the attempted second-degree murder and kidnapping of Brandy Moneymaker on February 8, 2017, according to Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark. The plea agreement was heard in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Monday, Clark said in a press release.

Myers received back-to-back prison sentences of 15 years and 12 years. He has an effective sentence of 27 years, which he will serve without the possibility of parole, Clark said. [Read more…]

Updated: Homicide charge in drug-related fatality could be a first in Anderson County

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Troy Andrew Venable

Troy Andrew Venable

 

This story was last updated at 5:30 p.m.

The reckless homicide charge filed against an Oak Ridge man in a grand jury indictment after a drug-related fatality could be a first in Anderson County, a law enforcement official said.

Troy Andrew Venable, 29, was indicted in April on a reckless homicide charge in the death of Lauren Alexandra Fritts, 26.

Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said it is, as far as he knows, the first time in Anderson County that someone has been indicted on a homicide charge in a drug-related fatality. [Read more…]

Briceville man charged with murder in fatal shooting at Clinton Walmart

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Robert Keith Myers

Robert Keith Myers

 

A Briceville man has been charged with murder and attempted murder in two separate violent incidents this year, one a fatal shooting at Walmart in Clinton in April and the other a serious alleged beating and shooting in February that left a woman with cuts, broken bones, and a brain injury, authorities said Thursday.

Robert Keith “Robbie” Myers, 32, was indicted during a special grand jury session Tuesday. He was arrested Wednesday night by the Clinton Police Department.

In the first case, Myers has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Marshal Pinsly, 23, of Blaine, from a single gunshot wound in the parking lot of the Walmart in Clinton on Friday, April 28. Pinsly was married to the the ex-wife of Myers.

“The two are believed to have been involved in a disagreement over child visitation,” Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark said in a Thursday afternoon press release. “Mr. Pinsly approached Mr. Myers’ vehicle in the Walmart parking lot, and Mr. Myers is accused of shooting Mr. Pinsly without legal justification.” [Read more…]

Clinton man sentenced to 30 years in death of mother fleeing dispute

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Kieth William Pittman

Kieth William Pittman

 

CLINTON—A Clinton man was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday for the 2014 stabbing death of a mother trying to flee a domestic dispute.

Kieth William Pittman, 28, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of second-degree murder and a second charge of tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to 25 years on the second-degree murder charge and five years on the tampering with evidence charge.

The sentences must be served consecutively, meaning Pittman has an effective 30-year sentence, Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge said during a plea agreement hearing in Clinton on Thursday.

The victim, Heather McKamey, 22, was a mother of three boys. She and Pittman had two of the boys together.

McKamey was stabbed outside her apartment at 301 Park Avenue in north Clinton after an argument between her and Pittman became physical at about 2:25 a.m. Saturday, April 19, 2014, according to police reports and an affidavit filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton.

“While both the victim (McKamey) and suspect (Pittman) were in the driveway, the suspect stabbed the victim in the stomach with the knife he had taken from the kitchen,” according to the affidavit, filed by Clinton Police Department Detective Sergeant Russell Barker. “Witnesses advised the victim fled down Park Avenue to McAdoo Street yelling for help, and the suspect chased her.” [Read more…]

Andersonville man indicted on murder charge in death of girlfriend’s mother

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William James McMillan

William James McMillan

An Andersonville man has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge in the death of his girlfriend’s mother at a home on Lone Mountain Road in Anderson County in 2015.

William James McMillan, 50, was indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury on March 7. He will be arraigned in Anderson County Circuit and Criminal Court in Clinton on Friday.

McMillan is accused of fatally shooting Karen Zahrobsky, who was 66.

Authorities said McMillan, Zahrobsky, and Zahrobsky’s daughter, Christina Dixon, who was then 45, all lived at 460 Lone Mountain Road in Andersonville, where the shooting allegedly occurred at about 4:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 10, 2015.

Zahrobsky was dead when deputies arrived. [Read more…]

Man pleads guilty to murder-, robbery-related charges in drug deal that ended in death

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Bronx Washington

Bronx Washington

An Oak Ridge man has pleaded guilty to murder- and robbery-related charges in what police described as a marijuana deal that ended with one man dead.

Bronx Shavon Washington, who is now 22, pleaded guilty in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday. He entered the guilty pleas on a reduced charge of facilitation to commit second-degree murder, a Class B felony, and a reduced charge of facilitation to commit aggravated robbery, a Class C felony. Washington received a total 14-year sentence on those two charges as well as a drug possession charge. He was the last of three defendants to plead guilty in the case.

Washington and two brothers, Brandon Javon Brooms, now 25, and James Stefan Brooms, now 27, had each been indicted in March 2012 on charges of first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery in the death of Antonio “Tony” Phillips, 22. [Read more…]

Maine man pleads guilty to murder charge in OS drug deal that ended in death

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Scott-Benjamin-Pike-Nov 21-2014

Scott Benjamin Pike (November 2014 photo by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department)

A 32-year-old Maine man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the death of an Oliver Springs man after a drug deal in May 2011.

Scott Benjamin Pike, of Lewiston, Maine, entered the guilty pleas in Anderson County Criminal Court on Friday, January 29.

Pike received a 20-year sentence on the second-degree murder charge, a Class A felony, and a 12-year sentence on the aggravated robbery charge, a Class B felony. There is no probation on either count, according to court records. The sentences will run concurrently. He will receive credit for time served.

Pike was indicted on a first-degree murder charge on February 7, 2012, by the Anderson County Grand Jury. Also indicted were Ronny Blake Hamrick of Oliver Springs and Tristin Jane Dayon of Lewiston, Maine. A first-degree murder charge could include a premeditated killing or an unlawful death that occurred during a robbery or attempted robbery, according to the indictments. [Read more…]