Trials
Kevin Jaimes Martinez was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in a Knoxville laundromat shooting.
WBIR reported Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, that Martinez, 22, was found guilty in the Dec. 19, 2024, shooting on Washington Pike that Knox County District Attorney Charme Allen said began over a phone he believed had been stolen. Judge Scott Green imposed a life sentence.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
The conviction and life term came the same day, according to the district attorney. Under Tennessee law, a life sentence means 51 years before parole eligibility, WBIR reported. The stolen-phone motive is the prosecution's account of why the shooting happened. WBIR's report did not name the man who was killed.
Kevin Jaimes Martinez, 22, was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in a Knoxville shooting that started over a cellphone, and Judge Scott Green then sentenced him to life in prison, Knox County District Attorney Charme Allen said, WBIR reported. Under Tennessee law, Martinez must serve 51 years before he is eligible for parole, the station reported.
According to Allen, investigators found that Martinez was angry with the victim because he believed the victim had stolen his brother's phone, WBIR reported. WBIR did not name the man who was killed.
Allen said surveillance video showed Martinez outside a laundromat on Washington Pike on Dec. 19, 2024, WBIR reported. The video then showed him walk to the victim's vehicle, go back into the building, return to the vehicle, open the door and shoot the victim, according to Allen. Martinez was taken into custody at the Nashville Greyhound bus station while on his way to California, Allen said.
The motive and the description of the video are the district attorney's account, as presented to the court that convicted him. WBIR did not report whether a jury or the judge returned the verdict, or whether the defense plans an appeal. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
A Santa Fe judge sentenced Isaac Apodaca to life in prison plus 15 years in the sword killing of Grace Jennings.
The term The New Mexican reported from Thursday's hearing is life plus 15 years, consecutive, with the 15-year sentence served first. That is the judgment the paper says Judge Ellington imposed. KOAT's July 15 story still had the hearing on Aug. 24 and described the exposure as up to life. Kiara McCulley's 30-year figure is not in the same tense in every account: KOAT said in July that she is serving it, and The New Mexican said Thursday that she is expected to receive it.
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Reporting noted by The New Mexican, KOAT, and KOB.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
A Fort Wayne jury found Domonique Drew guilty of murder in the gas station shooting of Scott Reed Armstrong.
Thursday's verdict is the jury's finding on the murder count and the firearm enhancement. The sentence has not been imposed. The surveillance video, the witness identification and the apology letter described in court records are the prosecution's account that the jury accepted. Drew's statement to police that the victim spat on him is his account. The jury did not credit it as a defense to murder.
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Reporting noted by 21Alive and The Journal Gazette.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Kevon Lawless pleaded guilty to murder in the 2020 deaths of Brandon Waddles and Trinity Randolph, and the sentence reported Thursday is 35 years.
Monday's plea, as WKYT reported it, replaces a conviction the Kentucky Supreme Court threw out. The 35-year figure is the term WLKY, WKYT and WDRB all reported. WKYT also wrote that the murder counts were 35 years each, burglary 20, and a firearm count 10, and that those terms were recommended to run consecutively for a total of 35 years. Consecutive terms of that length are not 35 years. The stations did not print an order that reconciles the two.
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Reporting noted by WKYT, WDRB, WLKY, and Kentucky Supreme Court.