A Grainger County jury sentenced Aaron White to life without parole on both murder counts in the deaths of Jon Atkins and Deven McDaniel.

Thursday was the verdict. Friday was the punishment. WBIR reported the choice on each murder count was life with the possibility of parole or life without it, and that the jury picked life without parole on both. The account of the killings that WBIR says prosecutors played is a recorded police interview. It is not a statement he made at the sentencing.

WBIR reported Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, that a Grainger County jury sentenced Aaron White, of Morristown, to two life sentences without the possibility of parole, one on each count of first-degree murder. The station reported the jury had found him guilty Thursday evening of both murder counts and of two counts of abuse of a corpse, after about an hour and a half of deliberations. WVLT reported the guilty verdict came Thursday afternoon and that the jury returned Friday morning for the sentence. WBIR reported the victims were Jon Atkins, 49, and Deven McDaniel, 32. WVLT reported their bodies were found along Rocky Springs Road in Bean Station on May 25, 2024. WBIR did not print that date or that road.

WBIR reported the sentencing decision was between life with the possibility of parole and life without it. The station reported prosecutors read a letter from Blake Long, who wrote that he is now 18 and that Atkins had been like a father to him, before the jury was sent out around 10 a.m. WBIR reported the jury came back just after 11 a.m. WVLT reported the two life-without-parole terms and did not describe the letters or the clock. Long's letter is what WBIR said prosecutors read to the jury. It is not testimony.

What White told investigators, as WBIR described a recording played Thursday, is a separate account from the charging affidavit WVLT summarized. WBIR reported that in the recording he said he brought ammunition, weapons and a ghillie net to the Bean Station property, that he moved into the woods behind the residence, and that Atkins and McDaniel, whom he said he did not know, walked up the gravel driveway. WBIR reported he said Atkins ran "sort of" toward him and did not have a weapon, and that he shot Atkins. The station reported Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent Brandon Elkins testified that Atkins's gunshot wounds were in his back. WBIR reported White then said he shot McDaniel, that he tied rope around both men and dragged them with his truck, and that he told investigators cutting the bodies apart made them easier to move. WVLT, citing the affidavit, reported that Grainger County Sheriff's Office Detective Captain Leon Spoone and Elkins found a bank receipt with White's account number near the bodies, that a phone he was known to use pinged a tower less than a mile from the scene, and that the affidavit described the bodies as dismembered and said he had access to a home where more evidence was found. Those are the recording and the affidavit, as the two stations reported them.

WVLT reported a Grainger County grand jury indicted White on Aug. 28 on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abuse of a corpse. The station did not print the year of that indictment. The Friday sentences are what WBIR and WVLT reported the jury imposed on the two murder counts. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.