ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. — After a five-hour hearing, a judge found probable cause Tuesday to believe a Houston, Texas, truck driver killed a Loudon County deputy while intoxicated on Interstate 75.
A grand jury will now consider the case against Christopher Savannah, accused of killing Loudon County Sheriff's Sgt. Chris Jenkins on I-75 in February.
Tuesday's hearing was held before Roane County General Sessions Court Judge Terry Stevens.
Savannah, 43, ignored a rolling roadblock and hit and killed Jenkins as he was attempting to remove a ladder that fell out of a vehicle on the heavily traveled interstate, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
The first witness called was THP Trooper Paul Dubroc. He took the stand and described responding to the crash scene.
“For lack of a better term, it was chaotic,” Dubroc said. “I wouldn’t wish upon anyone what I saw that day.”
He said Jenkins’ body was underneath the tractor-trailer when he arrived on the scene.
The prosecutor asked if there was any evidence of how Jenkins' body was struck. Dubroc testified Jenkins was trapped between the truck and his patrol vehicle. He said Jenkins was run over by the truck’s tires.
Dubroc said Savannah “had a lack of emotion for everything going on.”
He described the field sobriety tests he conducted on Savannah. On the walk and turn test, Dubroc said he showed signs of impairment. He didn’t take the right number of steps, used his arms to balance, and started too soon — all signs of impairment.
During the “one-leg stand” test, he said Savannah swayed and used his arms to balance. That’s also a sign of impairment, the trooper said.
Dubroc said the performance on the sobriety tests indicates drug impairment, not alcohol impairment. He submitted a sample of Savannah’s blood to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for a toxicology test.
The state concluded its testimony and Savannah’s defense attorney asked if Dubroc knew Jenkins personally. The trooper said he knew Jenkins and worked out with him at the gym. They also worked crashes together.
Savannah’s original public defender left the case. His new attorney is a court-appointed defense attorney out of Rutherford County.
The defense attorney asked about the weather conditions on the day of the crash. It was a rainy, dreary morning that day. The trooper described the visibility as “fair” at the time of the crash.
The defense attorney asked about where the accident occurred on I-75. It was on a slight incline on a curve just before the Tennessee River bridge.
Dubroc said EMS told him a Loudon County deputy had died in the crash. He said as soon as he heard that, he scanned the scene and saw Jenkins under the tractor-trailer.
He said “time stood still” and he could hear the distress of Jenkins’ K-9 barking.
The defense attorney asked if he considered whether someone who didn’t know Jenkins should conduct the investigation.
“Yes, I knew him, but it’s not something I could be not neutral about," the trooper said. It’s my job as a highway patrolman to be neutral and fair.”
Dubroc said he then asked to push the witnesses back away from the crash and start securing the scene. He said EMS was still working the scene and EMTs did not administer aid to Sgt. Jenkins after he arrived on the scene.
“Chris was dead, there was nothing you could do for Chris," the trooper said.
The court went into a brief recess, and then the judge asked not to broadcast the next section of the witness testimony as it included graphic descriptions of the crash.
Once the broadcast was allowed to continue, the defense attorney asked the trooper about what time the crash occurred and what part of the tractor-trailer hit Jenkins.
The trooper said he has reviewed Jenkins’ body camera footage from the crash. The trooper said the body camera video showed Jenkins has just closed the door to his patrol vehicle when he gets hit.
The defense attorney asked whether it’s proper to conduct a rolling roadblock as Jenkins’ was doing before he got hit. Jenkins was responding to a call to remove an orange ladder from the roadway on I-75.
The defense attorney went back over a lot of the details of the logistics of the minutes and hours after the crash with the trooper. What time was the initial blood draw? Where was Savannah when the trooper initially approached?
Dubroc repeated Savannah was “emotionless” in the aftermath of the crash. The defense attorney asked whether that could be because Savannah was in shock. The trooper said that could be one example.
The defense attorney asked what clues led Dubroc to believe Savannah was under the influence of drugs. The field sobriety test is designed to test for alcohol impairment, but the trooper said the signs showed he was under the influence. Savannah denied using any substances.
The prosecution asked about prior crashes on I-75 that day, both were vehicles hitting the ladder on the road that Jenkins was there to clear off the road.
The next witness was another THP trooper, Lt. Carey Hixson. He testified at a previous bond hearing. He oversees the truck scales near Farragut in Knox County and responded to the scene of Jenkins crash.
Hixson described the scene as he pulled up and identified Savannah in the courtroom. In previous testimony, he spoke about Savannah’s lack of license to drive commercial motor vehicles.
The commercial aspect of Savannah’s license had expired, Hixson said. In 2021, he failed a drug test and further became ineligible to drive a tractor-trailer truck commercially.
The defense attorney asked Hixson what time he arrived on the scene when the crash happened, where Savannah was on the scene, and other questions.
The defense attorney asked if Savannah’s commercial driver's license was suspended. “Not suspended, just disqualified,” Hixson said.
Hixson said Savannah was stopped in late summer 2021 in Maryland and it was noted that Savannah’s CDL wasn’t active. He said he isn’t sure whether Savannah was allowed to drive away from that or not.
Hixson testified there was an inoperable brake and an out-of-adjustment brake on Savannah’s trailer. Out of 10 breaks, two were not properly working. That means his truck should’ve been out of service until the truck was repaired. The trailer also had a flat tire.
THP trooper Sgt. Robert Woody also testified at the preliminary hearing. He oversees Loudon County and fills in on Roane County.
Woody said he responded to the scene around 9:30 a.m. after another officer texted him about it. He was scheduled to be off duty that day but came in to assist.
“Most of the deputies on scene needed to be consoled,” he said.
Woody said during an inventory of the truck cab, a trooper yelled, “Hey Sarge, I smell marijuana,” and he took control of the inventory.
“As soon as I opened the door, I could smell the distinct smell of raw and burnt marijuana in that vehicle,” he said.
He said he found a black bag between the two front seats of the truck cab with a loaded semi-automatic pistol inside.
Woody said he found a small wooden box with rounded edges with marijuana inside, a grinder and rolling papers during his search of the vehicle.
He told the defense attorney he knew Jenkins since roughly 2011 through K-9 training and had investigated crash scenes together, but he did not know him personally.
Woody also testified Savannah was emotionless on the scene but said he isn’t qualified to determine whether that’s a symptom of shock or not.
The defense attorney also asked if Woody is able to tell the difference between marijuana and CBD.
Woody said Savannah admitted smoking marijuana that morning and said he had smoked before and there would be marijuana found in the truck. Savannah also reportedly admitted he smoked before starting his day to calm down before his shift.
He said Savannah made the statements voluntarily, and he believes someone had read Savannah his Miranda rights.
Woody said Savannah did not keep accurate logbooks so they didn’t know where he started his driving on that day.
The state called THP Sgt. Scott Hines to testify next.
Hines said he was called to respond from Wartburg, and it took about 30 minutes for him to arrive on the scene. He said his first involvement was to make sure the troopers were doing their job.
He said they escorted the vehicle to the scales to continue the investigation by inspecting the tractor-trailer. He also noted the brakes and flat tires on the truck and said their condition meant it shouldn't be on the road.
Hines also reiterated the issue with Savannah’s commercial driver's license not being active because of a previous failed drug test.
Court took a brief recess so Savannah could use the restroom.
Testimony resumed and Hines said Savannah appeared not to have a care in the world on the scene based on his lack of emotion.
The state then called Detective John Mayes with the Roane County Sheriff's Office. He said he observed Savannah's field sobriety tests and saw signs of impairment.
He said Savannah was taken to a Tennessee National Guard facility to do an evaluation because it was an unbiased location and controlled environment.
Editor's note: The article was modified on March 9 to correct the spelling of a trooper's name from Debrock to Dubroc.