John Bane was sentenced to death by the State of Tennessee for the murder of a man. According to court documents Royce Frazier was found dead in a bathtub full of water. The sixty year old man had been gagged, a electrical cord was wrapped around his neck and a bag over his head. The killer, John Bane, had used a toilet plunger to keep Frazier head below water. John Bane was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
On November 19, 1988, police found the body of the victim, Royce D. Frazier, age 60, lying in a bathtub full of water in his home near Memphis, Tennessee. Frazier had been gagged; a plastic bag had been placed over his head; and an electrical cord was tied around his neck. A plunger had been placed over his face apparently to keep his head submerged. Frazier’s house had been ransacked: several lamps and ashtrays had been overturned and numerous items were scattered in disarray.
Brian Lovett, who was 16 at the time of the offense, testified that his mother, Donna Lovett, and the defendant, John Michael Bane, had discussed a plan to rob the victim several days before he was killed. The plan was for Donna Lovett to visit Frazier, whom she knew, and render him unconscious by putting Visine eye drops in his beer. Bane would then enter Frazier’s home and carry out the robbery with Donna Lovett. According to Brian Lovett, Bane said that Frazier would have to be killed because he “knew [Lovett] and would tell on her.” Brian Lovett said that he and Bane discussed choking or stabbing the victim.
On the day after the robbery plan discussion, Donna Lovett and the defendant John Bane experimented by giving Brian Lovett a beer containing eye drops to see whether it would render him unconscious. Brian Lovett testified that it caused him to fall asleep within five minutes of drinking the beer. Thomas Lovett, Brian’s younger brother, also testified that he recalled Brian drinking a beer containing eye drops.
Sometime in the late afternoon of November 17, 1988, John Bane, accompanied by Donna Lovett and her two sons, Brian and Thomas Lovett, drove his car past Frazier’s home several times, but no one appeared to be home. Bane explained that he was going to borrow money from the occupant. When they saw Frazier’s car at the home, Donna Lovett got out of the car and went into the house alone. Bane then left and drove Brian and Thomas to Brian’s girlfriend’s home. A short time later, Bane picked up the boys and took them to the Lovetts’ trailer in Ripley, Tennessee. Thereafter, Bane, along with Brian Lovett, returned to Frazier’s home. When Donna Lovett signaled by “flickering” the porch light on two occasions, Bane entered Frazier’s home, leaving Brian Lovett in the car.
According to Brian Lovett’s testimony, approximately thirty minutes later John Bane and Donna Lovett ran to the car carrying several items of Frazier’s property. Bane had blood on his gloves and Donna Lovett was crying and upset. While driving from the scene, Bane told Brian that he had beaten the victim several times because he kept getting up and that he had “cut [the victim’s] nuts off.” Bane also said that he had taken $726 and that he “had done such a good job he deserved a beer.” Bane was arrested two days later when Donna Lovett reported the events of November 17, 1988 to the police.2
Brian Lovett testified that his sister committed suicide several months before the killing of the victim and that he himself had attempted suicide on two occasions before November 17, 1988. He admitted that he had been treated at Charter Lakeside and Memphis Mental Health Institute and that he had a history of using cocaine, speed, marijuana, and alcohol. Lovett also admitted that he had made conflicting statements about the murder. In one statement, he had told authorities that he had looked in Frazier’s window and saw Bane holding a knife to the victim’s groin while Donna Lovett placed a bag over the victim’s head. He did not recall why he had made the statement and conceded that he had never left Bane’s car. Lovett testified that he had been arrested for theft after Bane was convicted and that he had been placed in the same prison cell as the defendant. He conceded that he signed a statement that he had lied at trial because he feared the defendant.
Dr. Jerry Francisco, Shelby Counter Medical Examiner, testified that the cause of the victim’s death was ligature strangulation with asphyxia. The combination of the cloth gag, plastic bag, and electrical cord had cut off the supply of blood to the victim’s brain and the supply of oxygen to his lungs. The victim’s tongue had been pushed into the back of his mouth from the cloth gag. Dr. Francisco stated that the victim could have been rendered unconscious in seconds or minutes, depending on the severity and force of the ligature strangulation, but that the victim’s death required several minutes. Dr. Francisco testified that the victim had extensive bruising around his eyes, head, neck, arms, and hip; a tear and scrape below his left eye; and abrasions around his neck. There was no evidence of injury to the victim’s groin area or scrotum. Dr. Francisco testified that fluid found in the victim’s lungs was consistent with a finding that the victim had been alive when placed in the water.
The defendant John Bane called several witnesses to testify on his behalf. Brian Lovett identified the handwriting of Donna Lovett in two letters that she had written to Bane after the murder. One of the letters indicated that Brian Lovett had lied at trial and was coerced by the prosecution. Donna Lovett also wrote that only she and Bane knew what happened in Frazier’s home.
Wilma McNeill, the defendant’s aunt, testified that Bane had been “very close” to his mother, who died of cancer in April of 1988. McNeill testified that Bane had grown up working on a farm. She stated that she loved Bane and asked the jury to spare his life. Maybelle Cunningham, also an aunt of the defendant, testified that both of Bane’s parents were deceased. Cunningham testified that Bane had two sons, ages 14 and 10.
Marvin Ramey testified that Bane had worked on his farm when he was young and was a good worker. Ramey testified that his wife looked after Bane and that he had never caused any trouble.
Teresa Goforth, a co-worker of Bane and Donna Lovett at J.P.W. Enterprises, testified that Bane was a good, hard worker. She testified that Bane and Donna Lovett were dating and that Lovett was extremely jealous. About one week before the murder, Donna Lovett told Goforth that “if she couldn’t have [the defendant], no one would and that she would see him locked away so far he would never get out.”
Alicia Shadell Gray, Bane’s cousin, likewise testified that Donna Lovett was very possessive and jealous. Three weeks before the murder, Gray heard Lovett say, “If I can’t have Michael, no woman would have Michael, and I’ll see us both behind bars.” Donna Lovett attempted suicide later that day at Gray’s home by overdosing on pills, and Bane took her to the emergency room. Gray testified that after Bane was convicted, Brian Lovett told her that his mother had agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of 35 years and that he did not want to see “an innocent man” go to prison. He said he planned to write an affidavit stating that Bane had no part in the offense.
Diane Bane testified that she met Bane while he was in prison and fell in love with him after talking regularly to him on the telephone. She married Bane in March of 1995 and travels 200 miles round trip every Saturday to visit him. Her former husband died in August of 1994, and she had three sons from that marriage.
After deliberating on all of the above evidence, the jury found that there was evidence supporting two aggravating circumstances: (1) that the murder was “especially atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture and depravity of mind” 3 and (2) that the murder was “committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution of the defendant or another.” Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-2-203(i)(5), (6) (1982).4 After further finding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the evidence of mitigating circumstances, the jury imposed a sentence of death.
Rejon Taylor was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the kidnapping and murder of Guy Luck in Tennessee. According to court documents Rejon Taylor would go to the victims home in Georgia with two associates were he would kidnap the restaurant owner at gunpoint. Rejon Taylor would force the victim into a car where he was then driven to Tennessee where he was shot multiple times. Rejon Taylor would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. As of 2021 he remains on Federal Death Row
[Taylor] had been responsible for various thefts and burglaries from [Guy] Luck’s house and other nearby residences in Atlanta between 2001 and 2003. On August 6, 2003, [Taylor], along with codefendants Sir Jack Matthews and Joey Marshall, went to Luck’s house with the intention of robbing him. After confronting Luck at gunpoint, Marshall guarded Luck while [Taylor] began looking through Luck’s house. Inside the house, [Taylor] took around $600 or $800. Marshall testified [Taylor] later told him there was a warrant or other document connected with [Taylor’s] arrest on theft charges in another case, which suggested Luck could be a witness against [Taylor].
At gunpoint, Luck was forced outside his house and into his van. [Taylor] got in the driver’s seat, while Matthews guarded Luck in the back. [Taylor] and Matthews each had a gun. [Taylor] drove the van onto Interstate 75 and traveled north from Atlanta. They made a brief stop at a gas station in north Georgia before eventually crossing into southeast Tennessee, where [Taylor] exited the expressway and drove into the Chattanooga suburb of Collegedale. During the trip, Marshall followed behind in a car registered to [Taylor’s] mother.
As [Taylor] drove the van around relatively isolated roads in Collegedale, there was a confrontation in the back of the van, in which Matthews fired a shot, which hit Luck in the arm. [Taylor] turned around from the driver’s seat and fired three shots at Luck. The third bullet hit Luck in the mouth and caused his death later that day at Erlanger Hospital. [Taylor] and Matthews left their guns in the van and walked briskly from the van to the car driven by Marshall. They then drove back to Atlanta.
[Taylor] was subsequently arrested and incarcerated pre-trial at the Hamilton County Jail in Chattanooga. While incarcerated there, [he] was part of a group of inmates that attempted to escape.
Megan Boswell is a eighteen year old from Tennessee who has been charged with the murder of her fifteen month old daughter. This alleged teen killer whose daughter was reported missing and then told authorities that the little girl was with her father has been charged with an assortment of charges including murder, child abuse and lying to officials. The fifteen month old girl, Evelyn Boswell, was reported missing by Megan father who told authorities he had not seen his granddaughter in a couple of months. Megan Boswell first said that the child was with Evelyn’s father. When the father denied all knowledge of his daughters disappearance her story changed. Megan Boswell was then arrested for lying to officials. When the body of Evelyn Boswell was found a month later in a storage shed on Megan’s father property. Megan Boswell was then charged with the murder of her daughter.
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A Sullivan County grand jury on Wednesday returned a presentment charging Megan Boswell in the death of her daughter, 15-month-old Evelyn Mae Boswell.
Sullivan County District Attorney General Barry Staubus said at a Wednesday evening news conference that Megan Boswell now faces 19 charges in her daughter’s death, including felony murder and aggravated child abuse.
The presentment – served up by the grand jury earlier Wednesday – does not offer details on how Evelyn died or an exact date of her death. It lists the date of death as “on or about December 2019.”
Megan Boswell, 18, is accused of killing her daughter under two separate legal theories – that the child’s death resulted from an act of child abuse or that the child’s death resulted from an act of child neglect, a Knox News review of the presentment shows.
She’s also accused in the presentment of a dozen counts of lying to various law enforcement agents, including detectives with the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department and agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI.
The presentment alleges Megan Boswell abused her daughter’s corpse – a charge typically leveled when a body is moved and hidden in some manner. Evelyn Boswell’s body was discovered in March hidden in a shed owned by Megan Boswell’s father, Tommy Boswell Sr., at the Boswell family compound off Muddy Creek Road.
Megan Boswell also is accused in the presentment of failing to report her daughter’s death to authorities. Staubus said the teenager, who is already jailed on a prior grand jury indictment for allegedly lying about her daughter’s disappearance, will be arraigned on the presentment Aug. 28.
Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy said at Wednesday’s news conference Evelyn’s disappearance and death sparked outrage and upset not only in the Blountville community but across the country.
“We received food, cards, prayers and encouraging words, and we appreciate it more than you know,” Cassidy said. “We are determined to ensure justice is served for baby Evelyn.”
Cassidy said the months-long investigation that led to Wednesday’s presentment was hindered by lies and “false information” from both Megan Boswell and various unidentified community members.
“Other individuals were eliminated as suspects, and Megan Boswell became the sole suspect in the case,” Cassidy said.
TBI Director David Rausch told the more than a dozen agents, deputies and detectives gathered at the Wednesday news briefing he knew their work “wasn’t easy, and it had to be heartbreaking.”
“She didn’t deserve this,” Rausch said of Evelyn. “No child does. … Child abuse must stop, and we must do all in our power to make that happen.”
A Knox News investigation has revealed Evelyn was born in November 2018 to two teenage parents – Megan Boswell, then 17, and Ethan Perry, then 19. Perry had joined the military a year earlier after graduating high school.
Megan Boswell was living with her father, Tommy Boswell Sr., 50, and two younger siblings at the Boswell family compound off Muddy Creek Road in Blountville at the time of the birth. Megan Boswell’s mother, Angela Boswell, 42, was in jail on drug-related charges when Evelyn was born.
Tommy Boswell Sr., who operates a paving company from the family compound, reported Evelyn missing in February. He told authorities he had not seen the child since early December 2019. He has never publicly explained why he delayed in reporting his granddaughter missing but denies any role in her disappearance and death.
The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office immediately launched a probe of the disappearance and interviewed both Megan Boswell and Perry, who then was stationed in Louisiana. Perry denied any knowledge of the disappearance or his daughter’s whereabouts.
Megan Boswell, on the other hand, made a slew of claims that authorities now say were false, including blaming Perry for the child’s disappearance and insisting her mother had taken the child to a Virginia campground. She was jailed, accused of filing false reports.
Angela Boswell, meanwhile, abruptly left Sullivan County when news of her granddaughter’s disappearance surfaced and headed to North Carolina with then-boyfriend William McCloud. Both were arrested – accused of failing to pay for the car in which they were traveling – but later told Sullivan County authorities they knew nothing about Evelyn’s whereabouts.
On March 11 – nearly three weeks after Evelyn was reported missing – law enforcement agents showed up at the Boswell family compound armed with a search warrant and soon announced they’d found Evelyn’s remains inside Tommy Boswell Sr.’s shed.
Natasha Cornett was eighteen years old when she took part in the now infamous Lillelid murders in Tennessee. According to court documents Natasha Cornett along with Edward Dean Mullins, 19; Joseph Lance Risner, 20; Crystal R. Sturgill, 18; Jason Blake Bryant, 14; and Karen R. Howell, 17 were on a road trip to New Orleans Louisiana when they stopped at a rest area in Tennessee
The Lillelid family who just attended a Jehovah Witness convention. The father Vidar Lillelid approached the group to spread the word but what he did not know is that Natasha Cornett and her group were planning on carjacking his van in order to complete their trip to New Orleans.
The Lillelid family which consisted of Vidar Lillelid, his wife Defina and their two children: six year old Tabitha and two year old Peter were forced at gunpoint to their van which was then driven to a remote location.
Who exactly shot the Lillelid family is not 100 percent clear however fourteen year old Jason Bryant and other male members of the group were involved. Vidar and Defina would both die at the scene, six year old Tabitha died on the way to the hospital and two year old Peter would survive his injuries but would lose the sight in one of his eyes.
Natasha Cornett and her group were soon arrested and charged with the three murders. All of the group members who were eighteen years plus, including Natasha, would take a plea deal in order for the death penalty to be taken off the table. The younger members would ultimately receive the same sentences.
A number of years later Natasha Cornett and death row inmate Christa Pike would both be charged and convicted in the attempted murder of another inmate.
The van rolled through the twilight, gravel crunching beneath its wheels and a few quiet sobs escaping from inside.
The sun had set, and dusk thickened to dark. The van stopped, and the doors opened.
One by one, the occupants climbed out — from behind the wheel, the father, a tall, thin man in his 30s; from the back, the mother, slightly younger and holding the hands of their daughter and son; two women in black; and a man and a boy, each holding a gun. A car pulled up the road behind them, circled around the van and came to a stop, its headlights still on.
One gunman turned to the other.
“What do you think we should do?” he asked. “Do you think we should let them go or do you think we should kill them?
Six people, all serving life sentences with no chance of parole, know what happened next that Sunday evening of April 6, 1997. Each tells a slightly different story. In each story, another fires the fatal shots.
John Huffine can recite the events from memory. The retired detective knows every inch of the spot along Payne Hollow Lane in rural Greene County, right down to the number of feet from the spot where the van parked to the main road, to the nearest house, to the ditch where deputies found four bodies lying in a bloody pile. Twenty years later, he can point out all the landmarks.
Here were the tire tracks. There was a shell casing. This house wasn’t here then. That tree was smaller. The stump — that’s gone.
He can tick off all the names on his fingers — Vidar and Delfina Lillelid, the Knoxville couple whose names still call to mind one of the most gruesome and notorious murder cases in modern East Tennessee history; their 6-year-old daughter, Tabitha, who offered chocolates to her killers on the ride to her death; their 2-year-old son, Peter, the only one of the family to survive.
He remembers the killers, too, whose names, mug shots and fascination with devil worship, blood-drinking and the occult topped front pages, TV newscasts and tabloid covers for months after the killing, and whose motives still drive online debates among true-crime aficionados. Natasha Cornett, then 18; Karen Howell, then 17; Joseph Lance Risner, then 20; Jason Blake Bryant, then 14; Joseph Dean Mullins, then 19; and Crystal Rena Sturgill, then 18, all deny to this day they knew what was about to happen on the side of that gravel road
The longtime investigator knows how the killers met their victims, can tell the story of how the family, devout Jehovah’s Witnesses headed home from a religious convention, stopped at the rest area on Interstate 81 South at just the right time to cross paths with six Kentucky youths on the run from police, parents and a community they hated. He knows the path they followed from there to the murder scene. He knows how many shots were fired, in what order and from what distance.
What he still can’t say for sure is exactly what happened after the van stopped.
“Everybody has their theory, and I have mine,” Huffine said. “I think it was a crime of opportunity. All the elements just came together. But this case is like an inkblot. Everybody who looks at it sees something different.
The six still have their defenders, from family members to strangers who don’t dispute their guilt but insist all shouldn’t die behind bars. Attorneys for Bryant and Howell have filed motions to reopen their exhausted appeals, citing recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that restrict the imposition of life sentences on juveniles. Howell’s motion could be heard April 21.
Berkeley Bell, who prosecuted the case as district attorney general, sees not an inkblot, but a clear-cut face-off between good and evil.
“It was the highlight of my career as a prosecutor,” said Bell, now retired after 32 years in office. “The whole thing was driven by evil — almost a supernatural-type evil. That sense of evil just permeated the whole thing from start to finish. It infused the defendants, and it empowered them. That’s what I believed then, and my opinion has not changed.
The next time convicted killer Christa Gail Pike engages in a cage match with another murderer, she might want to lose the smack talk.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday ruled that Pike ‘s own words belied her claim that she nearly choked to death one Knoxville killer to save another notorious East Tennessee murderer.
“Her stated intention was to protect” convicted killer Natasha Cornett, Appellate Judge John Everett Williams wrote. “There was ample evidence by her actions and ( Pike ‘s) own words that contradicted this position.”
The appellate court, in upholding Pike ‘s conviction for the attempted murder of Patricia Ann Jones in the Tennessee Prison for Women, also rejected Pike ‘s argument that the Davidson County jury that convicted her was prejudiced by testimony that Pike is on death row.
“Although the unsolicited remark was prejudicial, it was mitigated by the setting in which these events took place,” Williams wrote. “The inmates of the maximum security wing of the Tennessee Prison for Women are generally considered to have attained their status through other than innocent and meritorious means.”
Pike , on death row for the 1995 torture-slaying of fellow Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer, attacked Jones in 2001 while the pair and Cornett were placed together in a “recreation cell or cage” after a fire-related evacuation of prison cells, the opinion stated.
All three women are among East Tennessee’s most notorious killers.
Jones is serving life plus 40 years for killing 84-year-old Alberta Coker during a robbery at Coker’s East Fifth Avenue home in 1995. Like Pike , Jones had come to Knoxville via the Job Corps program. Jones stabbed Coker 77 times so she could steal jewelry and corn, which she traded for $50 worth of cocaine.
Natasha Cornett was the ringleader of a crew of Kentucky teenagers who kidnapped a Powell family from a rest area in Greene County in 1997. The teenagers took Vidar and Delfina Lillelid and their two children, 2 and 6, to a remote area and shot them. Only the toddler survived. She is serving life without possibility of parole.
According to the appellate court opinion, Jones had a beef with Natasha Cornett and has a reputation for fighting other inmates.
“I just want to kill her, maybe come up behind her and split her throat or catch her when the police ain’t around and just beat her until I get tired,” Jones said of Cornett in a chat with a prison doctor before the August 2001 incident with Pike .
Despite that, prison guards put Jones, Cornett and Pike together in the recreation cage because of a fire at the prison on Aug. 24, 2001.
Pike came armed with a shoelace-like string, the opinion stated.
“When asked of her intention toward (Jones), ( Pike ) said, ‘I don’t wanna (sic) say that I intended to kill her but I would say that I didn’t care if she died,’?” the opinion stated.
In a telephone conversation with her mother after the incident with Jones, Pike described what happened after the trio was locked inside the cage.
“Patricia was running her (expletive) mouth to Natasha,” Pike said in the tape-recorded phone call. “And she is constantly doing it, you know. I hate that (expletive).”
Pike told her mother than Jones raised her fist as if to hit Natasha Cornett.
“I said, ‘Oh, (expletive) no!’?” Pike said. “And I wrapped that shoestring around her (neck) and tried to choke the (expletive) life out of her. She was passed out on the ground, Mama, twitching, foaming at the mouth. Her eyeballs were bugged out so far her eyelids were flipped up.”
According to the opinion, Pike explained to her mother that she now knows “the difference between premeditated murder and what happened to (Slemmer) ’cause I premeditated the (expletive) out of this. If I’d of had 30 more seconds, we’d have a little chalk line out there in our rec pen and that (expletive) would be gone somewhere.”
Jones survived the attack.
Pike is currently on her last round of appeals of her convictions in the Slemmer slaying. A hearing on that appeal is set for September in Knox County Criminal Court.
ach of the six defendants was indicted for three counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted first degree murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnaping, two counts of aggravated kidnaping, and one count of theft of property valued over $1,000. The charges stemmed from the April 6, 1997, murder of Vidar Lillelid (34) and Delfina Lillelid (28), the murder of their six-year-old daughter, Tabitha Lillelid, and the attempted murder of their two-year-old son, Peter Lillelid. The crimes were committed near a rest stop in Greene County, Tennessee.
The defendants were en route from their homes in Pikeville, Kentucky, to New Orleans, Louisiana. Before leaving Kentucky, they had acquired two guns, a 9mm and a .25 caliber pistol. Shortly after their departure, they realized that their car, which belonged to Joseph Risner, would not likely sustain the length of the trip. They discussed the possibility of stealing a car from a parking lot or a dealership before meeting the Lillelids, who were returning to their residence from a religious convention, at a rest stop on Interstate 81 near Greeneville.
Vidar Lillelid, who was an active Jehovah’s Witness, approached Cornett and Howell at the rest stop in order to discuss his religious views. He was accompanied by his son, Peter. Eventually, Risner and Bryant joined the conversation. Meanwhile, Mrs. Lillelid and her daughter, Tabitha, were seated at a nearby picnic table. After a time, Risner, Bryant, Howell, and Cornett joined the entire Lillelid family and continued their conversation. At some point, Risner displayed one of the guns and said, “I hate to do you this way, but we are going to have to take you with us for your van.” As he then directed the Lillelid family into their van, Vidar Lillelid pleaded with the group, offering his keys and wallet in exchange for permission to remain at the rest stop. Risner refused.
Vidar Lillelid drove the van while Risner, still armed, sat in the passenger seat. Risner, Bryant, Howell, and Cornett were in the van with the Lillelids. Mullins and Sturgill followed in Risner’s car. In an attempt to calm the children, Delfina Lillelid began to sing. Bryant purportedly ordered her to stop. Risner directed Mr. Lillelid first to the interstate and then to a secluded road at the next exit.
What happened thereafter is in dispute. The accounts given by Risner, Cornett, Howell, Mullins, and Sturgill are consistent, except for minor discrepancies. They claim that Bryant began to take charge of the situation once Risner ordered the van to a stop. Risner, who was in possession of the 9mm weapon, contends that he handed the gun to Cornett at that point, explaining that he could not continue. Cornett maintains that she placed the weapon on the floor of the van while Bryant, who had the .25 caliber gun, ordered the Lillelids to stand in front of a ditch. According to all but Bryant, the Lillelids pleaded for their lives and especially for the lives of their children, promising that they would not call the authorities. The other defendants contend that when Bryant refused, Cornett and Howell then pleaded with Bryant to let the Lillelids go. According to the other defendants, Bryant again refused, explaining that the Lillelids would likely call the police. When Bryant promised that he would not hurt the children, Howell and Cornett testified that they returned to the van, where Risner had remained. They then heard a rapid succession of gunshots. Some claim that Mr. Lillelid was the first to be shot, while others say that it was Mrs. Lillelid. All contend that when the shooting stopped, Bryant returned to the van, and said, “They’re still f-ing alive.” He then grabbed the other gun and fired another round of shots. Bryant, they said, laughed and bragged about the shootings. After the shootings, Risner went to his car and removed the license plate and registration from his vehicle. Risner claims that he accidentally struck one or more of the bodies when, in response to an order from Bryant, he turned the van around. They each claim that Sturgill and Mullins remained in Risner’s car throughout the entire episode.
At the sentencing hearing, Bryant testified that it was Risner who ordered the Lillelids out of the van and directed them to stand by a ditch. He contended that Risner first shot Vidar Lillelid with the .25 caliber weapon and then slapped Mullins on the shoulder, and that Mullins also shot at the victims. Bryant claimed that he kept his eyes closed during the shootings and that he never fired either weapon. Bryant contended that Mullins and Risner ordered the others into the van after the shootings. The defendants then drove the Lillelids’ van to a gas station where they purchased a road map. They stopped at a Waffle House while traveling through Georgia but left the restaurant when a group of police officers arrived. They decided to abandon their plans to travel to New Orleans and instead drove toward Mexico. When they reached the border, they were initially denied admittance because they did not have the proper forms of identification but eventually found a way into the country. While in Mexico, Bryant was shot in the hand and leg. The source of the wound is disputed by the defendants. Bryant testified that Risner asked him to take the blame for the shootings because Bryant was a juvenile. He claimed that when he hesitated, Risner shot him in the hand and in the leg. The other defendants asserted that Bryant’s wounds were self-inflicted.
Later, the defendants were stopped by the Mexican authorities. When they claimed they were lost, the officers ordered the defendants out of the van and conducted a search. When they found a knife and a photo album belonging to the Lillelid family, they ordered the defendants to the border to re-enter the United States. American officers searched the defendants at the border patrol and took them to an Arizona jail. At the time of their arrest, several of the defendants had in their possession personal items belonging to the victims.
Upon their return to Tennessee, the state filed formal charges and provided notice seeking the death penalty for each defendant, except for Howell and Bryant, who were juveniles at the time of the commission of the crime. In exchange for withdrawal of the requests for the death penalty, Cornett, Risner, Mullins, and Sturgill pled guilty to three counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted first degree murder. Juveniles Howell and Bryant also entered pleas of guilt to the same charges.
The sentencing hearing, conducted in February of 1998, lasted one week. All of the defendants testified at the hearing, with the exception of Mullins and Sturgill.
Dr. Cleland Blake, a forensic pathologist, testified to the extent of the victims’ injuries. Vidar Lillelid, age 34, received a total of six gunshot wounds, one to the right side of his head and five to his chest. In Dr. Blake’s opinion, the first shot entered the victim’s right eye, traveled through his temple, and exited in front of his right ear. While he could not be certain, it was Dr. Blake’s opinion that this shot was fired by a 9mm handgun and would have caused a loss of consciousness. Dr. Blake believed that the victim fell to the ground and was shot three times in the upper right side of his chest. He described the shots as consistent with a 9mm. It was Dr. Blake’s opinion that the three gunshot wounds to the chest were deliberately fired in order to form the shape of an equilateral triangle and that the victim was lying on his back at the time. A gunshot wound just below Mr. Lillelid’s nipple was consistent with a .25 caliber weapon. A final 9mm gunshot wound was located just beneath the .25 caliber wound. There was a “graze laceration” on the victim’s right forearm where a bullet skimmed across the surface of his arm. A span of approximately 23 centimeters divided the five chest wounds. All of the wounds were grouped along the right side of the body. There were postmortem superficial abrasions to the back of the victim’s legs. Dr. Blake believed that the victim most likely died within a few minutes of the initial gunshot to his right eye.
Delfina Lillelid, age 28, was shot eight times. All eight bullets were recovered; six were from a 9mm and two were from a .25 caliber. In Dr. Blake’s opinion, the first of these shots, fired by a 9mm, shattered the bone in her left arm. The second shot, also from a 9mm, shattered the thigh of her left leg. Dr. Blake testified that these shots would have caused severe pain, but would not have produced her death. Dr. Blake believed that the victim would not have been able to stand after these wounds were inflicted. Mrs. Lillelid was shot six additional times while she lay on her back. The first three shots struck the left side of her abdomen. It was Dr. Blake’s opinion that these shots were fired to form a triangular pattern, similar to the injuries inflicted on Mr. Lillelid. The three shots pierced her stomach, leaving a four- to five-inch tear, and traveled through her pancreas, spleen, left kidney, and left adrenal. A final 9mm entry wound was located at the mid-section of Mrs. Lillelid’s abdomen just above her navel and was recovered from her vertebrae. There was a .25 caliber gunshot wound under her left armpit; the bullet lodged in the skin on the back of her left shoulder. A .25 caliber weapon also caused a wound to Mrs. Lillelid’s left side. The bullet was recovered from the center of her liver. She also suffered abrasions on her right calf. Dr. Blake testified that Mrs. Lillelid’s wounds were not immediately fatal and that she could have been conscious for as long as 25 minutes, including when her body was driven over by the van.
Six-year-old Tabitha Lillelid was shot once in the head by a small caliber weapon. The bullet entered her head on the left side, traveled downward, and exited behind her right ear, causing immediate brain death. Her organs continued to function through the use of life support until her uncle, who had been named her custodian, gave permission for the donation of several of her internal organs. Physicians harvested her heart, liver, gallbladder, kidneys, pancreas, spleen, and adrenals. She was pronounced dead one day after the shootings.
Two-year-old Peter Lillelid was shot twice with a small caliber weapon. One shot entered behind his right ear and exited near his right eye. A second gunshot penetrated his body from the back and exited through his chest. He was transported to the pediatric intensive care unit at the University of Tennessee Memorial Hospital by a Lifestar helicopter and was listed in critical condition. He required vigorous resuscitation. There was a contusion to his right lung and some residual bleeding in his right chest cavity. Eleven days after the shootings, doctors removed the damaged eye. He remained in the hospital for 17 days before being transferred to a rehabilitation center in Knoxville.
With regard to the first degree murder of Vidar Lillelid, the trial court found the two following aggravating circumstances applicable to each of the six defendants:
(1) the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing arrest or prosecution, Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(6); and
(2) the defendants committed “mass murder,” Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(12).
The trial court concluded that these two aggravating circumstances also applied to the murder of Delfina Lillelid. A third aggravating circumstance was also found to be present: Her murder was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel” because of the “torture and abuse ․ on the way to [the] murder, when [the victims] were crying and begging, pleading and singing” and because Mrs. Lillelid “cried and begged and pleaded before she was killed, at least for her children ․ and then was [deliberately] run over while she was still alive.” Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(5).
With respect to the murder of Tabitha Lillelid, the trial court applied three aggravating circumstances to all six defendants:
(1) the defendants committed “mass murder,” Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(12);
(2) the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, Tenn .Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(5); and
(3) the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing arrest or prosecution, Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(6).
The trial court reasoned that the murder of Tabitha Lillelid was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” because she “saw her parents shot and fall to the ground.” As to the defendants Risner, Mullins, Sturgill, and Cornett, the trial court found a fourth aggravating circumstance, Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(1), applicable to the murder of Tabitha Lillelid because she was under the age of twelve and the defendants Risner, Mullins, Sturgill, and Cornett were at least eighteen. Because Bryant (14) and Howell (17) were under the age of eighteen, this aggravating circumstance was not applicable to them.
The trial court found the following statutory enhancement factors applicable to each of the defendants as to the attempted murder of Peter Lillelid:
(1) the victim of the offense was particularly vulnerable because of age, Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-114(4);
(2) the victim was treated with exceptional cruelty during the commission of the offense, Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-114(5); and
(3) a firearm was used during the commission of the offense, Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-114(9).
The trial court imposed the maximum possible sentence upon each of the defendants: Twenty-five years for the attempted murder of Peter Lillelid and life sentences without the possibility of parole for each of the three first degree murder convictions. The trial court ordered that all four sentences be served consecutively, finding each defendant to be a dangerous offender, having little regard for human life within the meaning of Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-115(4).
Amanda McGhee was fifteen and pregnant when along with her older boyfriend Andrew Mann murdered her father and stepmother. According to prosecutors Amanda McGhee and Andrew Mann planned the double murder for weeks. The teen killers would first shoot her father, who would lay dying for several hours before calling her stepmother home and fatally shooting her. Amanda McGhee would be sentenced to forty five years in prison and Andrew Mann would receive a life sentence
A woman convicted of killing her father and stepmother in 2007 is now petitioning to have her prison sentence reduced.
Amanda Dawn McGhee, now 26, was only 15 years old when she plotted with her boyfriend, Andrew Bryan Mann, to kill Terrance and Alisa McGhee. The murders took place on June 29, 2007.
In a taped confession, McGhee told investigators that she and Mann plotted the murders over a number of weeks. McGhee told interrogators that the original plot had involved battery acid, but said she and Mann decided to use her father’s gun instead.
McGhee, in the taped interrogation, told police her father Terrance McGhee lay alive for hours in his bed making strange noises before he died. McGhee said she called her stepmother Alisa McGhee at work the day of the murders to tell her she loved her, and to ask when she’d be home.
McGhee was 15 years old and pregnant with Mann’s child. He was 21 at the time. McGhee gave birth while in Knox County Juvenile custody.
McGhee was sentenced in 2009 to 20 years for the death of her father, and 25 years for the death of her stepmother. She’s serving the two sentences consecutively, for a total of 45 years in prison.
She is petitioning for relief from conviction, and her case is set to be heard Nov. 9.
The girl who plotted to kill her father and stepmother in 2007 at their Jolly Lane home pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of second degree murder.
Amanda Dawn McGhee was sentenced to 20 years for the death of her father, and 25 years for the death of her stepmother. She’ll serve the two sentences consecutively, for a total of 45 years in prison. However, she can get a 15 percent reduction in her sentence for good behavior.
McGhee conspired with her boyfriend, Andrew Bryan Mann to kill Terrance and Alisa McGhee. The murders took place on June 29, 2007.
In a taped confession, McGhee told investigators that she and Mann plotted the murders over a number of weeks. McGhee told interrogators that the original plot had involved battery acid, but said she and Mann decided to use her father’s gun instead.
McGhee, in the taped interrogation, told police her father Terrance McGhee lay alive for hours in his bed making strange noises before he died. McGhee said she called her stepmother Alisa McGhee at work the day of the murders to tell her she loved her, and to ask when she’d be home.
McGhee was 15 years old and pregnant with Mann’s child. He was 21 at the time. McGhee gave birth while in Knox County Juvenile custody.
Frequently Asked Questions
Amanda McGhee Now
Amanda McGhee is currently incarcerated at the Tennessee Prison For Women
Amanda McGhee Release Date
Amanda McGhee first chance at parole is in 2049
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