Charges against the man accused in the October steak knife slaying of a 24-year-old Dunlap woman were bound over last week for a Monday hearing before a Sequatchie County grand jury.
An indictment could be handed down as soon as today, according to Sequatchie County Sheriff Ronnie Hitchcock.
Authorities say 72-year-old Willard Clifton Land already had spent 15 to 20 years in a California prison for murder in the 1970s when he was arrested in connection with the Oct. 11 slaying of Kerry Summer Angel, a former Sequatchie County High School cheerleader when she attended school there.
The killing happened at the home of a third person atop Cagle Mountain, east of Dunlap, Tenn., at 210 Keener Road where Angel was found with a five-inch-deep wound in her shoulder. The scene of the homicide is about nine miles northeast of Dunlap in a sparsely populated area a mile or so off of state Highway 111.
According to investigators' early reports, a witness told authorities that Angel and Land were arguing over pills -- described as Xanax and hydrocodone -- and everyone present was intoxicated.
Land initially fled the site of the stabbing but was caught by deputies in a wooded area not far from the crime scene.
The sheriff said Monday that no other charges are pending in the case.
Land remains held without bond on criminal homicide charges at the Sequatchie County Justice Center in Dunlap, Hitchcock said.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.