KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Knox County Grand Jury will consider a murder case against a Knoxville man accused of fatally stabbing a 76-year-old in February.
Joe Whitaker is accused of leaving his restaurant job on the night of the killing with a large kitchen knife, declaring that he was about to hurt someone. A manager at the Market Square restaurant alerted authorities someone could be in danger at the victim's Bellevue Street home, but an officer said couldn't find anyone there and left.
Whitaker is accused of going to that home and stabbing Julius Parker, 76, perhaps as many as 40 times. Authorities said he broke into Parker's house through a basement window and confronted him upstairs as he sat in a chair. They said blood could be seen on the floor of the living room, and said his body was dragged on a blanket down to the basement.
They said his body was left there for several days before it was found.
Knox County General Sessions Court Judge Patricia Hall Long presided over the preliminary hearing on Friday. She decided that the murder charge should be bound over, to be considered by a Grand Jury. Other charges Whitaker faced, including kidnapping and theft, were dismissed.
The officer who responded to the murder scene and found Parker's body testified before the judge, as well as a detective. According to the detective, Whitaker would tell authorities he wanted a lawyer but then start talking about the murder.
"He kind of went all over the place, a little bit," the detective said.
Knox County prosecutors will present their case behind closed doors to a Grand Jury. They can then choose to either indict him or decline to indict him, based on the evidence from prosecutors.