Patrick Carmody sentenced to life in prison for 2010 Hixson slaying

Patrick Carmody, 47, faces felony murder and especially aggravated robbery charges in Judge Barry Steelman's Criminal Court Wednesday, May 25, 2016. He is one of three men linked to the 2010 Hixson slaying of 21-year-old Chance LeCroy.
Patrick Carmody, 47, faces felony murder and especially aggravated robbery charges in Judge Barry Steelman's Criminal Court Wednesday, May 25, 2016. He is one of three men linked to the 2010 Hixson slaying of 21-year-old Chance LeCroy.

The courthouse began buzzing around 1:30 p.m.

Prosecutors, police officers, Chance LeCroy's family members, everyone heard the message: After deliberating through the morning and lunchtime, jurors had reached a verdict Friday in the murder trial of Patrick Carmody.

About 10 family members stood in the waiting room, locked outside Judge Barry Steelman's Criminal Court. They held out a photo of LeCroy, then young with a crop of brown hair and a smile.

At 1:36, the door opened. "Come on in," a courthouse officer said.

They streamed into the gallery, where they had spent the last four days, and waited. They'd been waiting since Thursday afternoon, when the jury began deliberating. They'd been waiting for six years, really - since they heard three men had broken into LeCroy's home at 1211 Johnston Terrace looking for money and marijuana and instead found the 21-year-old asleep in bed. They beat him about the head and shoulders, shot him twice and avoided arrest for nearly two years, prosecutors said.

They also managed to avoid punishment - until now.

Four court officers gathered near Carmody's holding room, four more stood by the defense tables, another two flanked the back wall. The prosecutors sat motionless while investigator Christopher Blackwell, with the Chattanooga Police Department, leaned back in his seat.

Earlier in the week, he said officers followed strong leads to Harbor Lights Yacht Club, where Carmody and his accomplices Ronald Pittman and Billy Bob Partin stayed. They found the apartment that Carmody visited after the shooting, found two different types of carpet lining the room, he said. They found Carmody's old cabin and, on a nearby trail, 150 yards or so away, a roll of carpet.

Carmody's attorney, Lee Ortwein, sat beside his client.

Throughout the week, as prosecutors painted a picture of Carmody, Partin and Pittman leaving for the scene in a stolen pickup, Ortwein created a counter-narrative. Several of the state's witnesses, he said, belonged to a clique at Harbor Lights that knew about the robbery beforehand, that knew LeCroy and where he lived. That knew he'd gotten a fresh shipment, too. They were accomplices, he argued, and couldn't fully be trusted - especially Pittman, who testified Thursday in intimate detail about the events leading up to the shooting.

Pittman still faces charges of facilitation of felony murder and facilitation of especially aggravated robbery. Partin, on the other hand, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2014 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole, records show.

At 1:45 p.m., Judge Steelman returned, ushering in the jury. The courtroom stopped buzzing as the foreperson stood to read the decision: Carmody, 47, was guilty of first-degree felony murder and especially aggravated robbery.

The felony murder carried a life sentence, meaning 51 years in prison before Carmody is considered for parole. Especially aggravated robbery is a class-A felony and carries between 15 and 60 years, according to state code.

Steelman dismissed the jurors to address the sentencing. He said he would handle the especially aggravated robbery charge on July 25, giving the defense time to file any kind of appeal.

As for the felony murder, Steelman asked Carmody to stand. "The court hereby sentences you to life in prison," he said.

Then he banged the gavel.

One of LeCroy's family members, who had been crying, lowered her tissue, stood up and began clapping.

Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at 423-757-6347 or zpeterson@timesfreepress.com. Follow @zackpeterson918.

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