GREENE COUNTY, Tenn. — The Greene County district attorney announced Wednesday that his office would seek to try a 16-year-old as an adult. The teen is accused of murdering a 7-year-old and the boy's 59-year-old grandmother.
DA Dan Armstrong said the severity of the crime and the brutality of the crime led his office to ask the Juvenile Court judge to transfer the teenager to adult court.
“The circumstances of this case are bone-chilling,” said Dan Armstrong.
A report from the Greene County Sheriff’s Office said deputies arrived to find two bodies behind the house. The report said deputies found puddles of blood and tools, “some of which were covered in blood,” next to a Ford Bronco at the house.
The report said a hammer was used to kill Sherry Cole and Jessie Allen. Authorities said most of the injuries were to the victims' heads and, according to reports, the 16-year-old also said he started planning to kill the victims earlier in the day.
Both victims and the 16-year-old charged in their murder lived in the same house on Old Snapps Ferry Road, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office incident report.
“The difference between what a child would be facing if they remain in juvenile court for first-degree murder and what a child would be sentenced to if convicted of that same charge as an adult is huge,” said Chloe Akers, a lawyer who represents kids in juvenile transfer cases.
Akers said in the juvenile system, a 16-year-old would only be in the system’s jurisdiction for 3 years until they turn 19 years old. But, if tried as an adult, the 16-year-old could serve the full sentence for murder.
“They would not be eligible for release from state prison until they were in their late 60s,” Akers said.
The judge will have to evaluate the teenager on six factors laid out by law to determine whether they could be transferred to the adult court system. Akers said a mental evaluation is one of those factors, but only whether the mental illness would cause the suspect to be institutionalized.
Armstrong said his office will fight to make sure the alleged killer is brought to justice.
The 16-year-old defendant will have a detention hearing on May 12. A transfer hearing will happen after that.