Knoxville Police are still looking for a man connected to a deadly shooting.
James Perry is wanted for voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges related to February’s incident.
Officials say Sherwin Harris was shot and killed on McCullough Avenue on February 14th.
If see him or know where he could be please call Crime Stoppers at 865-215-7165.
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) A Knoxville man has been indicted in the death of his mother, who was found dead in Blount County in September of 2023.
Officials with Blount County Circuit Court say 25-year-old Zachary Hayes was indicted for first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and aggravated cruelty to animals in the death of his mother 63-year-old Kimberly Hayes and a cat.
Blount County Sheriff’s Office deputies found the mother and the cat dead at a home in Louisville.
According to the Knox County Regional Forensics Center and investigators, Kimberly Hayes and the animal had been stabbed multiple times.
Zachary Hayes was indicted on Monday, March 4.
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) The Knoxville Police Department’s Chief of Police is asking the city for almost $3 million for employee and officer raises.
KPD Chief Paul Noel, making his case to city leaders during a budget hearing on March 6, said that even with the new hires the department secured in 2023, the department had a net loss for employees, partly because officers moved to higher-paying agencies.
“We are losing officers to the Y-12, the plants because the pay is very, very significant, and we’ve lost officers to other agencies as well, agencies like the [Tennessee] Highway Patrol and University of Tennessee [Police Department] that pay more money than we do,” Noel said.
According to Noel, KPD has the lowest starting pay in the county and close to the lowest starting salary in the entire East Tennessee region.
Noel’s ask comes just under a year after Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler went head-to-head with Mayor Glenn Jacobs over raises in the sheriff’s office.
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon is expected to deliver her State of the City Address on April 26, the day the proposed budget will be released.
The National Park Service (NPS) and Appalachian Piedmont Coastal Fire Management Zone plan to burn approximately 96 acres across six fields in Cataloochee Valley at Great Smoky Mountains National Park this week. Weather permitting, burn operations may begin as early as Tuesday, March 12.
Over the last 20 years, park managers have conducted burns during the spring and fall in Cades Cove. However, the last time fire managers conducted a prescribed burn in Cataloochee was 2015, and this will be the first time all of the Cataloochee meadows will receive prescribed fire treatments. These prescribed burns will help maintain open fields at Cataloochee, safely reduce fuels, manage pollinator habitat and preserve the historic landscape.
Before conducting a prescribed burn, park staff closely monitor fire weather conditions including vegetation and soil moisture, wind speed and direction, temperature and relative humidity to ensure that conditions meet the burn plan objectives for the site.
Motorists along Cataloochee Entrance Road and Cataloochee Creek Road should reduce speed, turn on headlights and stay alert when smoke is visible. Be aware of park rangers, firefighters and equipment along the roadway. The roads may close temporarily during operations for firefighter and visitor safety.
The prescribed burns in Cataloochee Valley are funded in part through a generous donation from the park’s philanthropic partner Friends of the Smokies.
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Tennessee is one step closer to potentially ending its grocery tax as a bill advances.
The bill, HB 2043/SB 1934, would prohibit state and local governments from taxing groceries.
“In a groundbreaking move to alleviate financial burdens on working families, Representative Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) and Senator Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) have successfully advanced their legislation to eliminate Tennessee’s grocery tax,” the spokesman for the Tennessee House Democratic Caucus said.
The bill passed out of the House Government Operations Committee on Monday and will advance to the House Finance Subcommittee. Next, it will be presented in the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Revenue Subcommittee.
“Tennessee’s sales tax rate on food currently stands at 4%, with local jurisdictions able to add up to an additional 2.75% in local sales taxes. The proposed legislation prohibits state and local governments from taxing groceries, providing much-needed relief for working families. To address potential revenue decreases, the lawmakers plan to pair the grocery tax repeal with corporate tax reform, closing loopholes benefiting billion-dollar corporations,” the spokesman explained. Story courtesy of WVLT
A guilty plea in the death of a two month old in Jefferson County.
Chelsea Marsh and Nick Lay were charged in October after firefighters responded to a home on Lowery Loop Road to find a baby not breathing.
The two were originally charged with aggravated child neglect and abuse as well as multiple drug charges.
They pled guilty to both the drug charges and the lesser charge of child neglect and abuse.
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) A Union County man is sentenced Monday to more than 50 years behind bars for child sexual abuse.
Officials with the Eighth Judicial District of Tennessee say
a Union County Grand Jury found Scott Stiner guilty of four counts of aggravated sexual assault on a child under 13 and one count of solicitation or sexual exploitation of a minor last December. He was arrested in California in March 2022.
Steiner was sentenced to serve a maximum of 12 years on each aggravated sexual assault charge and a maximum of six years on the solicitation charge, totaling 54 years.
He will not be eligible for release until July 2069.
Officials said Criminal Court Judge Zachary Walden described the case as “one of the worst he’s heard since taking the bench.”
The Union County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.
Oakdale, TN (WOKI) A man is sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole Friday, March 8, 2024 for his role in a 2020 Roane County murder.
The District Attorney’s office reports 39-year-old Joshua Aikens was convicted Friday of first-degree murder in the death of Robert Quenton McCullough whose body was found in an abandoned trailer in Oakdale in December of 2020 following a multi-agency investigation. McCullough’s mother had reported him missing in October.
Court records show Aikens, together with Shane Parks and Nicholas Holloway tied McCullough up using rope and zip ties while McCullough was at Holloway’s home. From there, they reportedly took McCollough to the trailer and left him.
All were charged in McCullough’s murder. Parks and Holloway are still awaiting trial.
Jefferson County, TN (WOKI) Two people have pled guilty in the 2023 death of a Jefferson County 2-month-old.
According to court records, Chelsea Marsh and Nicholas Lay both pled guilty to aggravated child neglect and abuse and drug charges in connection to the death of a 2-month-old boy in October of last year.
The pair were charged after firefighters responded to a home on Lowery Loop Road in New Market to find a baby not breathing. Despite resuscitative efforts from firefighters and EMS, the infant boy was pronounced dead at Jefferson Memorial Hospital.
Marsh and Lay were each sentenced to two years in prison, which can be suspended to supervised probation after serving six months behind bars.
