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Thursday, May 28, 2009
(Last modified: 2009-05-28 10:24:52) Source: The Greeneville Sun
They Get 2-Year Probation Terms As Accessories After The Fact
Two young Washington County men pleaded guilty Tuesday in Washington County Criminal Court to being accessories after the fact to the second-degree murder of a Chuckey resident in 2007. The Johnson City Press reported that Daniel Joseph Black, 21, of 370 McCarty Hollow Road, and Michael Gabriel "Gabe" Blankenship, 21, of 209 McCarty Hollow Road, each pleaded guilty to being accessories after the fact of second-degree murder of Jimmy Dean Overman. Overman, 41, died at his ex-wife's home at 128 Kenneth Foster Road, Telford, on Sunday evening, Feb. 25, 2007. Under a plea agreement, Black and Blankenship are to receive one-year prison sentences for which they requested probation. Judge Lynn Brown suspended both of the men's prison sentences and placed them on probation for two years with credit for 14 days in jail served by Black and 10 days in jail served by Blankenship following their arrests. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor charges against the men were dismissed as part of their plea agreements. Overman was fatally stabbed after he attempted to intervene in a dispute involving his teenage daughter, sheriff's investigators said. According to the Johnson City Press, investigators said Overman went outside to talk to three men and a 17-year old girl the men brought to the home to confront Overman's teenage daughter and another teenager at the residence. Overman had reportedly told the group to leave and was talking to one of the men when another man in the group, Jason Allen Phillips, 370 McCarty Hollow Road, Telford, hit him in the face then stabbed him seven times in the head, neck and chest, severing his jugular vein and an artery near his heart, investigators said. Phillips, who was 22 years old at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and contributing to the delinquency of a minor last September in exchange for a 15-year prison sentence. Because of his lengthy history of criminal charges, Phillips was sentenced as a "persistent 100 percent offender" which requires him to serve the entire sentence in prison except for any day for day credits earned for good behavior which could reduce his actual prison time 7.5 years. At the time of his guilty plea, Phillips said he was entering the guilty plea to avoid a greater penalty that he stabbed Overman in self defense after Overman hit him in the head. Assistant District Attorney Janet Vest told the court Phillips' account of the stabbing contradicted the statements of eyewitnesses who said Phillips was hit by another man. The juvenile girl the men brought to the home had been adjudicated a delinquent on a charge of accessory after the fact of second-degree murder. Copyright © 2009, The Greeneville Sun |