Category: News

Jimmy Byron Jones Jr of Morrison plead guilty to murdering a Warren County woman and leaving her body at a rock quarry in Summitville in March 2013 in Coffee County Circuit Court Wednesday.
Judge Vanessa Jackson sentenced Jones to 18 years in state lockup.
The burned body Connie Lou Godsey Brown age 58 was found March 9, 2013 near a Summitville Cave located between Summitville Road and Fire Tower Road.
Jones, 53 was arrested April 11, 2013 for the murder of Brown.
You may remember that Brown’s body was found by individuals riding four-wheelers in the area in the abandoned quarry.
An autopsy by the state medical examiner determined that Brown died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves said that Jones was being monitored by GPS for prior offenses and his location had been documented at the crime scene on two different occasions. The sheriff added that when investigators spoke with Jones on April 11, 2013 he admitted to being involved in Brown’s death. He has been held in the Coffee County Jail since his arrest.
Jones entered a plea of guilty to second degree murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to 18 years for the murder, four years for the abuse of a corpse and ten years for tampering with evidence. All of the sentences are to run concurrent or together. He had originally been charged with first degree murder but it was lowered to second degree in a plea agreement.
“I think we got the right results,” Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott said Thursday. “The family of Miss Brown was satisfied with this plea arrangement.”
Jones will be transferred to the Tennessee Department of Corrections as soon as they have a bed available, until then he will be housed in the Coffee County Jail.
Jones was represented by Public Defender John Nicoll and Kevin Askren. Northcott prosecuted the case.

Three people were arrested Oct. 13 on drug charges following a traffic stop.
Daniel Clay Snell, 43, of Manchester, Gabino Medrano Jr., 43, of Estill Springs and Christopher Issac Son, 23, of Tullahoma were arrested by Tennessee Highway Patrolman Donnie Clark.
Snell was charged with two counts of manufacture/delivery/sell of a controlled substance, simple possession, possession of schedule II and possession of drug paraphernalia. He allegedly was in possession of 205 Adderall pills and 141 Ritalin pills as well as 4.5 grams of methamphetamines. His bond was set at $108,500. He is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court Nov. 17.
Medrano was charged with driving on revoked license, possession of schedule II, possession of drug paraphernalia, manufacture/delivery/sell of a controlled substance and simple possession. The trooper alleges that he was in possession of 4.5 grams of methamphetamines and 4.1 grams of marijuana. He also was in possession of 16 Hydrocodone pills and digital scales.
Medrano was booked into the Coffee County Jail under a bond of $60,000. He is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court Nov. 17.
Son was charged with possession of schedule II, manufacture/delivery/sell of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was booked into the Coffee County Jail under a bond of $58,500 and is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court Nov. 17.

Motlow College is hosting the exhibit, “The World of Minerals” inside the Clayton-Glass Library on the Moore County campus. The exhibit is presented by Richard Gross, a retired Motlow professor. While the minerals were gathered from all over the United States, many came from Tennessee. “The Elmwood mine in Carthage and the Cumberland mine in Gordonsville are the premier mineral specimen mines in Tennessee,” said Gross.
Gross taught college for 39 years, including 26 at Motlow and 13 at Palm Beach Junior College. At Motlow he taught biology, honor’s biology, microbiology, environmental science, geology and photography. He was also responsible for the development of the geology course and credit photography courses at Motlow.

Robert Earl Hester age 37 of Piedmont Alabama was driving a vehicle on Interstate 24 near mile marker 115 inside Coffee County Tuesday afternoon. Hester was stopped for a traffic violation westbound by Tennessee Highway Patrolman Donnie Clark.
A check of Hester confirmed him to be a fugitive from justice out of Calhoun County Alabama where he is charged with a child sex crime. Hester physically resisted arrest by trying to get away from Clark after the traffic stop. The man then physically assaulted the Patrolman Clark by grabbing the officer and shoving him. Clark then had to physically take the subject to the ground to complete the arrest.
Calhoun County authorities advised that they would extradite Hester back to Alabama.
Hester is charged with being fugitive from justice, assault and resisting/frisk/halt/arrest or search and was booked in at the Coffee County Jail under a $1,007,500 bond and has a court date set for November 24, 2015.

Police are searching for a man who rented a car from Russell Barnett Kia in Tullahoma and left it in Georgia.
According to a police report by Officer Justin Smith, an individual leased a 2014 Jeep Cherokee for the day.
According to James Lindsey of Russell Barnett Kia, on Oct. 1 the individual drove the Jeep to Florida and Georgia where he abandoned it at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Lindsey told the officer that they were able to track it by GPS and located it in Georgia.

ONE DAY OF HOPE will take place this Saturday at the Coffee County Fairgrounds from 10am-2pm.
The event began in 2012 with about 6 churches and about 30 volunteers. Around 2,000 folks showed up that day for primarily clothes and some food and medical care. This year the event will have around 40 churches all across Coffee County involved and they expect well over 1,000 volunteers to greet the approximately 5,000 “honored guests”.
One of the co-leaders Ray Marcrom says the thought behind the event is for all followers of Jesus Christ to join hands in unity to express love and caring to the underserved and hurting in our county. Ray added that they will be providing bags of groceries, health care (including dental and vision care), career and job services, community assistance to services, clothing (esp. children’s coats), haircuts, massages, family portraits, a Kid Zone fun area, and lunch will be provided. The ONE DAY OF HOPE will also have an area for guidance and spiritual assistance if the guest chooses and they’ll have several folks who can speak Spanish to assist the Hispanic neighbors as well.

The Tullahoma Animal Shelter will hold their 12th Annual Bark in the Park fundraiser on October 17, 2015 from 10am until 2pm at Waggoner Park in Tullahoma. Join them for a day of fun while they raise money for medical care for the dogs in the shelter. For more information, please call Teresa Holt at 454-9580.
“This will be a great day to be in Tullahoma,” said Mayor Lane Curlee. “Bark in the Park is a great way to support the Animal Shelter’s mission.”
The Tullahoma Animal Shelter is a truly unique facility. Not only is it a no-kill facility, but it also provides medical care for dogs. “If a dog comes to our facility needing medical attention, it will get the needed treatment,” said Animal Control Supervisor, Teresa Holt. Often animals are picked up needing medical treatment or surgery. Bark in the park is their primary fundraiser for the veterinarian care.
Festivities planned include a silent auction, portraits, contests, demonstrations, games, $10 rabies and $15 microchip clinics, adoptable shelter dogs, a volcano slide, food and much more.
Admission is free and tickets are available for purchase for games and food. T-Shirts will be on sale for $15.00 or two for $25.00.
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For those about to rock, Parks and Recreation has a fun filled evening sure to leave you begging for more blistering solos and guitar riffs from Big Gun, an AC/DC tribute Band. Saturday, October 17, at Frazier McEwen Park, the Zombie Run starts at 4:30pm and the concert will follow the Zombie Run at about 6:30pm. Geneva, America’s Ultimate Biker Band, will open the evening with more rocking sounds. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Tullahoma Animal Shelter Building Fund and Tullahoma Day Care. For more details and complete rules of the event, click on http://www.tullahomatn.gov/zombie -rules.
Do you want to be a Zombie? Now is your change. Parks and Recreation asks that you register as Zombie by calling 455-1121.

Some good news to start off today. The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department is proud to announce that a missing teenager, Hailey Metcalf, has been found safe. Metcalf and her Mother reported the sheriff’s office on Tuesday afternoon.
Metcalf, 15, of Manchester had been missing since Sept. 6 when she left a Knoxville residence.
Investigator Jason Dendy said he would like to thank the public for the phone calls and the media for its reporting in this missing person’s case