KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On Wednesday, a man was convicted in Knox County Criminal Court for a May 2020 killing in North Knoxville.
Ralph Lee Atkins, 69, was convicted after police said he stabbed Eric Yorker, a 48-year-old man, near Knox Area Rescue Ministries on North Broadway. He was charged with second-degree murder and then indicted.
On August 7, Atkins was also charged with having drugs inside of prison. According to the Knox County Sheriff's Office, a security guard said they smelled tobacco during cell searches inside of the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility and they started searching cells.
Atkins and his cellmate were taken out while the search was done. Authorities said they found several milk cartons covered with trash. Inside, there was toilet paper wrapped around plastic bags bound with a rubber band.
One bag had white pills that guards identified as ibuprofen, while another had a mix of facility-issued prescription medication. Inside the second bag, authorities said there were also several smaller bags.
One of the smaller bags appeared to have tobacco, and another two had a "white, powdery substance." Another bag also had a brown, rock-like substance. There was also white powder loose throughout that bag.
Atkins and his cellmate were then strip-searched at the prison's medical facility and nothing was found, authorities said. However, his cellmate was drug tested and was positive for THC and methamphetamine. Atkins was tested and authorities said he was positive for fentanyl.
They said he then admitted one of the substances in the bags was methamphetamine. They weighed 51.5 grams in total, according to KCSO.