Three people charged with first-degree murder in an Oct. 13 home-invasion robbery, allegedly over "pills and money," were bound over Monday to the Greene County Grand Jury by General Sessions Judge Kenneth Bailey Jr.

Bailey set bond for Shawn A. Jones, 31, and Jessica Myers, 31, at $300,000, and bond for Chad Eric Rader, 34, at $200,000.

All three suspects had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jimmy Lee Cutshall, at his home at 132 Old Wilson Hill Road.

His wife, Rhonda E. Cutshall, 43, also suffered serious gunshot wounds in the robbery. She was unable to testify because of her medical condition, according to testimony.

A second woman who was at the house was able to hide and later call police. This person was not identified earlier by Sheriff Steve Burns, or in Monday's testimony.

Cecil Mills Jr., the lead Third Judicial District Assistant attorney general, had sought to have bond for all three set at $500,000 each, "because of the nature of the offense and the probability of flight."
However, Judge Bailey set the amounts after hearing that the accused would most likely not be able to raise even the amounts set. Jones is already incarcerated on another offense, said his attorney, T. Wood Smith, and "couldn't get out (before trial) even if his bond was $20."

Warrants filed Oct. 14 did not indicate which of the three did the shooting. Monday's hearing produced conflicting statements on that subject.

In the end, Judge Bailey said he found "probable cause" to believe that all three were involved.

The judge said he had heard "overwhelming evidence" that Shawn Jones "participated in the robbery, and probable cause to believe that he committed the offense of first-degree murder."

In the last of five statements Jones approved and signed, he testified that "Me, Jessica Myers and Chad Rader went to rob Jimmy and Rhonda Cutshall" at 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 13.

"We went to rob them of pills and money. Chad drove my Jeep. He let me and Rhonda out at a gate on the Kingsport Highway near Jimmy and Rhonda's house. Me and Jessica put on masks and gloves and Jessica had a .22 rifle."
Jones' statement said that he kicked the front door open and Jimmy, who may have been asleep on the couch, tried to push the door closed. "Jessica started shooting at Jimmy," Shawn Jones testified.

The judge was shown a photo of Cutshall with a bullet wound to the temple. A statement introduced Monday from the physician who performed an autopsy on Cutshall said he died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and neck, abdomen, left shoulder and right leg.

Jones' statement said, "The whole thing was Jessica's idea," and that he ran down the hall and grabbed Rhonda Cutshall's purse and fled.

Later testimony revealed that Rhonda Cutshall's ID and a prescription for narcotics was in the purse. "There was a lot of blood at the front door when I ran out," Shawn Jones testified in the statement.

He stated that he heard more gunshots as he fled and that, 15 minutes later, when Myers left the trailer, she told him, "I think they're both dead."

Later, Myers' signed statement was read by Sgt. Ricker. She testified, "I kicked the front door, it opened, and Shawn (Jones) just started shooting."

She testified that she "heard Jimmy gasping for air" and "ran to Rhonda's bedroom" where she heard more shots. She testified that she came back with Rhonda Cutshaw's purse and left the house, running across a field to the Jeep where Rader was waiting.

Later, when Jones and Myers returned to their residence on Burkey Road, Myers testified that Jones told her to take off all the clothes she had worn during the robbery and put them in a garbage bag" which was placed "in my little boy's room."

They then went to Myers' mother's house, according to Myers' statement. The statement indicated they believed her mother could pass herself off as Rhonda Cutshall and have the prescription for "240 Roxies," a street name for synthetic oxycodone, a narcotic, filled at a pharmacy in Virginia.

Later, tesimony revealed that Jessica Myers' children, ages 6 and 3, were in her mother's custody.

In view of Jessica Myers' statement, Judge Bailey said he planned to advise the local office of the Department of Children's Services.

Sheriff Steve Burns testified that he went to the mother's residence on Scott Farm Road after being advised that "an individual" in a Jeep like the one where the shooting occurred might be there, saw the Jeep driving up the driveway and pulled in behind it.

Jones was the driver and Myers was a passenger, the sheriff said. Burns said he told them to accompany him to the sheriff's office in Greeneville. Myers asked to talk to her mother, the sheriff said, to get the mother to take a child to school, and he agreed she could talk outside the house.

"She handed something to her mother," the sheriff said, which at the time he thought had something to do with the child.

In questioning from Frank Santore Jr., the attorney for Myers, the sheriff said he knew Jessica Myers' father, Frankie Myers, and had "talked to him about the children."

Burns said he did not take statements from Jones or Myers, but accompanied them to the sheriff's office in his own vehicle.

Judge Bailey noted that "Ms. Myers testified that she went into the house, participated in the robbery and at no point withdrew from the robbery," where "there was a killing."

Defense attorney Bill Bell contended that his client, Chad Rader, "wasn't the shooter," though the attorney conceded that Rader had made a statement implicating himself as a participant. Mills said Rader "knew the robbery was going to take place" and cooperated.

Judge Bailey noted that "Mr. Rader's own statement" indicated that the other two accused "said they were going to Jimmy's to kick in the door and rob him, and the fact that he didn't know they would shoot to kill" does not matter.

"When you surround yourself with folks of ill repute you are going to be just as responsible as the suspect that pulled the trigger," Judge Bailey said.

The judge noted that Rader's statement said he drove Jones and Myers to Cutshall's mobile home, "watched them put on masks, knew they were going to rob these people, took money for it, helped them dispose of the weapon" (by hiding it in a tree behind his house, where deputies later found it) and did not withdraw from the crime or tell the sheriff's department about it despite several opportunities when he was separated from Jones and Myers.

"I agree that he may not be as involved," the judge said, but under Tennessee law, "there is probable cause to believe that he committed the offense of first-degree murder."

Detective Sgt. Danny Ricker of the County Sheriff's Department testified that Jones signed five different statements while being questioned by detectives, and the statements were inconsistent about who did the shooting, implicating one person, then another, until the final statement implicated Jones.

Jones signed all of the statements, according to testimony.

Until the hearing, all three suspects had been held in the Greene County Jail on $100,000 bond each, and appeared in court in handcuffs, leg irons and striped jail pajamas.