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KNOXVILLE — Decision in the Yancey wrongful death lawsuit was in the hands of an eight-person jury as of the Independent Herald’s Tuesday press deadline, with a verdict expected soon thereafter.

The case was presented to the jury following closing arguments Tuesday morning. The plaintiffs wrapped up their case on Thursday morning, with the defense wrapping up their case late Friday afternoon. Court was not in session Monday in observance of Veterans Day.

As the jury made its decision, it was expected to focus on testimony from a number of witnesses who testified on behalf of both Lori Yancey and Marty Carson, both in person at the trial or in deposition testimony that was read at the trial by attorneys for either side.

Much of last week’s testimony centered on the events of November 28, 2003, when Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Hubert D. “John John” Yancey was fatally shot and killed by his partner, Carson, while the two were investigating a methamphetamine lab with other officers at a Williams Creek Road residence. Lori Yancey, Sgt. Yancey’s widow, claimed that Carson intentionally killed her husband inside the single-wide mobile home owned by Ryan Clark, while Carson insisted it was an accident.

Other testimony centered on alleged methamphetamine trafficking activities by Carson in the months and years leading up to the November 2003 incident. The trial provided a much more in-depth look at the events surrounding the shooting incident than anything that had previously been provided, and included several surprising revelations and allegations.

Both Carson and Yancey took the stand on their own behalf, while a number of other investigators and witnesses testified as well.

Perhaps most surprising was testimony by Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Mark Chitwood that John John Yancey had revealed to him as early as 2001 that he was investigating Carson for illegal drug activities. Chitwood testified at the outset of the trial that Yancey’s investigation had begun after Yancey was given information by an informant. Yancey and Carson were not partners at that time, and would not become partners until sometime in 2002.

Chitwood testified that he had become concerned for Yancey’s safety as November 2003 neared, saying he had encouraged Yancey to leave the Sheriff’s Department and seek work elsewhere.

Oneida Police Chief Mike Cross testified that Yancey had, indeed, inquired about a job at his department just days before his death. Cross said that Yancey called him approximately one week before he died, and again several days later. Cross was not permitted to testify before the jury as to why Yancey was seeking a job outside the department, but according to arguments by attorneys outside the presence of the jury, Cross had testified in an earlier deposition that Yancey had told him he believed “something bad is going to happen.”

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Steve Vinsant would testify later in the week that he interviewed Trooper Chitwood as part of his investigation into the death of Yancey, and while Chitwood told him that Yancey had said he “did not trust Marty Carson” because the Carson family took credit for high-profile cases at the Sheriff’s Department, Chitwood did not mention that Yancey had been investigating Carson.

District Attorney General Wm. Paul Phillips would also testify later in the week that he was unaware that Yancey was investigating Carson. Phillips testified that Yancey had asked to speak to him privately during a visit with Carson to the D.A.’s office, but said that Yancey was inquiring about reopening a “cold case” murder investigation from a previous sheriff’s administration and did not mention anything about alleged methamphetamine trafficking by Carson.

Assistant D.A. Sarah Davis, who was in charge of Scott County prosecutions at the time, likewise testified that she was not aware of an investigation of Carson by Yancey.

Another somewhat unexpected development was testimony by Agent Vinsant that suggested he has reopened his investigation of the alleged drug trafficking by Carson as a result of testimony given at the trial.

During cross-examination of Vinsant by plaintiff’s attorney Herbert Moncier, Vinsant revealed that he was unaware of meth allegations that had first been made against Carson in 2001 by escaped Scott County Jail inmates Lonnie Gunter and Nick Letner until he read a newspaper account of the trial on Thursday.

According to testimony earlier in the week, Letner had been told by Gunter that Carson was going to harm his family if he did not escape from jail and produce meth, prompting him to follow along with a plan to escape. He turned himself in to TBI agents 10 days later.

After reading the newspaper account of the trial, Vinsant testified, he had gone back and pulled his agency’s records of those allegations. When asked by Moncier if he was “investigating things as a result of this trial,” Vinsant replied, “Yes.”

However, Phillips would testify later in the day that other TBI agents had investigated those allegations and had recommended to prosecutors that no charges be filed.

“The TBI reported to me that they did not find the allegations to be credible,” Phillips said.

It was also revealed, for the first time publicly, that the TBI’s investigation of Yancey’s death did not end with a December 3, 2003, press conference at which Phillips announced that the shooting was an accident and no charges would be filed.

In fact, Phillips said, it was due to statements being made in the community that caused him to reiterate to investigators following the press conference the need for thoroughness in their investigation. That investigation lasted until at least February 2004, as several statements collected by TBI agents during that time frame were brought out during last week’s testimony.

One such statement was an interview conducted of Carson by Vinsant, during which Vinsant was critical of Carson’s description of events inside the mobile home the night Yancey died. Vinsant described to Carson that the events could not have taken place as he said, at one point saying, “Defense attorneys can pick apart everything that’s been done as far as this investigation goes. They are going to be able to see the same holes I have seen. And they’re going to hoop and holler.”

During examination by Moncier, Vinsant revealed that he was troubled then, and still troubled today, by Carson’s description of what happened inside the mobile home, particularly of the facts that Yancey would have been positioned just inches from where Carson said he thought he saw a shotgun barrel and fired, and yet he didn’t see Yancey, of the bullet’s left-to-right trajectory, and that Carson turned his back to the bedroom where suspects were hiding as he assisted Yancey immediately following the shot.

When asked by Moncier, “The facts don’t meet the truth in this case, do they?” Vinsant replied, “No sir.”

In response to questioning from defense attorney John Duffy, however, Vinsant said that he was “confident” in the investigation, which led to no charges being filed, and believed that it was “thorough.”

“There were areas where the information provided to us was very accurate, and some areas where it was not,” Vinsant said.

Phillips would later testify that he had “reiterated the need for thoroughness” to TBI agents after receiving information after the December 3 press conference that “there might be something intentional about the shooting.”

As part of the continued investigation, the state agreed to dismiss a criminal indictment against Nichole Windle for her involvement in the methamphetamine lab that led to the November 28, 2003 raid of the Williams Creek mobile home, in exchange for her giving a “truthful” statement to the TBI. That statement was taken by Bob Denney, TBI’s special agent in charge of East Tennessee.

FRIENDS OR ENEMIES?

Lori Yancey testified early in last week’s trial that Marty Carson had never expressed remorse to her for killing her husband. Another witness described Carson and Yancey as “rivals.” Richard Babb, an alleged criminal informant of Carson’s, and THP Trooper Mark Chitwood both testified that John John Yancey was investigating his partner for being involved in methamphetamine trafficking and accepting payoffs at the time that Carson killed Yancey inside the Williams Creek mobile home.

Other witnesses described the two differently.

“They got along very well and seemed like very good friends,” Assistant District Attorney Sarah Davis said. “There had been no evidence of animosity between these two partners given to us,” her boss, District Attorney General Wm. Paul Phillips said. “When I saw them, they were always working together.”

Carson himself described Yancey as like a brother.

“I felt just as bad as anybody could feel (about killing Yancey),” Carson said. “He was my partner. I felt as beat-down and as low as you can feel.”

But according to TBI Special Agent Steve Vinsant’s testimony, Chitwood told him that Yancey had related that he “did not trust” Carson, because the Carsons took credit for all the high-profile cases that attracted media attention. And according to arguments by attorneys before Judge Thomas Varlan, Oneida Police Chief Mike Cross said while being deposed that Yancey had told him just days before his death that he “has to get away from [the Sheriff’s Department] before something bad happens.”

And then there was the testimony of Babb, who testified that he assisted Carson with meth trafficking and that Yancey had gained knowledge of that and had begun investigating his partner as a response.

“You’re going to get killed,” Babb said that he told Yancey prior to this death.

MULTIPLE ALLEGATIONS

“When I got into trouble, [Carson] would see that everything worked out.”

Those were the words of Richard Babb, a self-professed outlaw with felony convictions “too many to count,” who claimed during Tuesday’s proceedings that he assisted Carson with meth trafficking.

“I would buy drugs for him and take them back to him. He would give me money [to go buy the drugs] and pay me for doing it,” Babb said.

In all, Babb said, he was paid to make drug buys for Carson over a six-year period. “Nobody was arrested and nobody went to court,” he said.

Eventually, he said, Yancey caught wind of those dealings, and set up surveillance of the buys. “He told me to keep doing it and he would start watching me,” Babb said.

Babb’s allegations would become more explosive. Shortly before Yancey’s death, he claimed, Carson met with him at Jeffers Cemetery off Jeffers Road in Oneida, where he offered him $5,000 and a revolver wrapped in a towel to kill Yancey. Carson offered his nephew, Joseph Babb, an additional $5,000 to drive Babb to committ the act, since the elder Babb does not have a driver’s license, he said.

Babb said he refused, saying, “I’m not a killer.”

Several weeks before the trial began, Babb was attacked outside his Lafayette Street, Oneida, home by what he says was a knife-weilding assailant. He said that Carson had driven by his home earlier in the day and pointed him out to an unidentified person.

But, like some other allegations made at the trial, it was pointed out during the defense’s building of its case that Babb’s claims had never been mentioned to authorities. Oneida Police Chief Mike Cross confirmed during his testimony that his department had investigated the alleged attack on Babb. However, no arrests were made in connection with that investigation.

Babb testified that he is a long-time knife-maker and has often received wounds from those knives during the grinding process, and told defense attorney John Duffy that meth “has adversely affected my memory.”

Carson would later testify that he had refused to use Babb as an informant, though Babb was often seen “hanging around” the Scott County Courthouse and offering information to officers.

“He was just unreliable,” Carson said.

Then there was the testimony of Nick Letner, who testified that he and Lonnie Gunter had provided meth to Carson, beginning in 2000, and that their 2001 escape from the Scott County Jail was due to threats that Carson would harm their family if they did not cooperate.

Letner testified that “all or the biggest part” of the meth he “cooked” went to Carson. In earlier testimony, Babb had said that he purchased the majority of his meth from Letner and Gunter.

But Carson testified that he had arrested Letner multiple times on methamphetamine charges, adding that those arrests are public record. And, he said, it was his investigation and charges he filed that led to Letner receiving a prison sentence in state court, which is currently being served at the South Central facility near Memphis.

And in cross-examination by Duffy, Letner said that his information that Carson picked up his meth was based solely on the statements of others, including Babb.

District Attorney General Wm. Paul Phillips would later testify that he had requested a TBI investigation, which was conducted by Charles Scott, in 2001 after Letner and Gunter made the allegations towards Carson. He said that the TBI reported to him that it had taken statements from the two men and “did not find them to be credible,” and had recommended that no charges be filed against Carson.

Asked if he would have been interested in information that Carson was involved in meth trafficking, Phillips responded “absolutely,” and said that he would have requested another TBI investigation into the matter. However, he testified, he had received no such information.

As for Babb’s assertion that no one was being arrested for meth buys, Carson said “Anyone can go to the District Attorney General’s office and see how many meth cases I worked and how many cases John John worked. In one year, we busted as many as 70 meth labs.”

He called the allegations against him “totally false.”

“I have no idea how they rattled up this big long story [about a murder-for-hire theory],” he said. “I had no reason to want anyone to shoot John John. That’s crazy.”

DESCRIPTION OF A GOOD OFFICER

“To describe my son would take more adjectives than I could find in the dictionary,” John John Yancey’s mother, Judith Gordon, said in an emotional testimony Wednesday afternoon. “The most important things in his life were wife, children, parents, community and the people around him.”

Gordon said the only thing her son had ever wanted to do was “be a police officer.

“He was a man that any mother would be proud of,” she said.

One after another, witnesses both for the plaintiffs and the defense described Sgt. Yancey as a good police officer and a man of good moral character.

His widow, Lori Yancey, was the first witness to take the stand Monday afternoon, and showed several pictures of her late husband with his three children.

“He was a good man, with good moral values,” Yancey said. “He never drank. No drugs.” She described her husband as a “hands-on dad” who took the time to take his sons to school and other activities.

Donnie Phillips, a sergeant at the Sheriff’s Department who testified on behalf of the defense, described Sgt. Yancey as a dedicated law enforcement officer.

“He was a very good officer,” Phillips said. “He liked his work. He liked what he was doing.”

And, the man accused of murdering him also spoke of him as a friend.

“I respected him like a brother,” Carson said.

On November 28, 2003, he said, “I wanted to go home to my family. The same as any other officer. I wanted John John to go home too. He had a family. He loved his family.”