David Gordon JenkinsOne of four men charged in Franklin County, Tenn., in the March 2013 cornfield killing of Corey N. Matthews was convicted of murder on Thursday.
The jury deliberated about an hour and a half before finding 48-year-old David Gordon Jenkins guilty of first-degree murder after a four-day trial in Winchester, according to 12th Judicial District Assistant District Attorney Steve Blount.
The conviction carries a sentence of life in prison, but presiding Judge Thomas Graham will have to decide how Jenkins' previous probation will figure into his sentence, Blount said Friday. Jenkins was on probation for a drug charge at the time of Matthews' slaying and the murder sentence could be served consecutively or concurrently with the sentence on the earlier conviction, depending on the judge's decision at a hearing set for June 9. A person sentenced to life under current state law is not eligible for parole until they have served 51 years.
The three other defendants in the slaying, John Corey Lanier, 26, Todd E. Dalton, 39, and Coty Keith Holmes, 25, are all charged with first-degree murder and felony murder in Matthews' death. The ages are listed as they were upon the men's arrests.
They will be tried separately if their cases go to trial, officials say.
The four defendants have ties to white supremacy groups, as did Matthews, investigators say. Authorities have said the men's ties to the Aryan Nation and possibly the Aryan Brotherhood are linked to Matthews' killing.
Matthews' body was found March 24, 2013, in a cornfield on Slag Town Road after his family reported him missing.
He was found lying on his back in clothes wet from a recent rainstorm with blunt-force trauma to his head and face, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Franklin County officials said.
The family said Matthews, a volunteer firefighter and father of two school-age children, hadn't been seen between the night of March 23 and the morning of March 24 when a missing persons report was filed.
Cowan Police Department Officer Mike Holmes stopped to talk to the family that day and drove out beyond Matthews' Tennessee Avenue home to look for him, Chief Allen Edwards said. The officer spotted Matthews' body just outside the city limits in a cornfield across Slag Town Road from a graveyard called Jackson Cemetery.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.