A 20-year-old Chattanooga man who partnered in a robbery that turned into a deadly shooting in April 2009 pleaded guilty to facilitation of first-degree felony murder on Monday.
Michael Adams was sentenced to 25 years in prison for aiding in the murder of 24-year-old Matt Coyle. Quinzell Grasty, who planned the burglary with Adams, was sentenced to life in prison for the killing in October.
“We talked with the family, and they agreed and thought that it was just, considering [Adams’] participation in the crime,” said Assistant District Attorney Cameron Williams after the sentencing in Hamilton County Criminal Court. “Twenty-five years is a long time.”
Adams and Grasty made plans to break into Coyle’s house on Standifer Gap Road because they knew that one of Coyle’s roommates sold marijuana, and they thought he would have cash or drugs, police said.
“Grasty essentially brought the idea, directed them out there, went into the home and shot the victim,” Williams said. “Adams was there. He got in the vehicle, was aware they were going to do the robbery. But he said he never went inside to commit the robbery.”
Coyle, who had never met Grasty or Adams, was sleeping in his bedroom with his girlfriend, Sarah Gill, when there was a loud boom.
Afraid intruders were in the house, Coyle found a pocketknife and then went to crack open the door and look down the hallway, Gill testified in court.
But when he opened the door, he was blown back into the room by a gunshot. Grasty confessed in recorded police interviews that he had shot Coyle in the face with a sawed-off shotgun.
“He killed the man I love,” Gill said while testifying during Grasty’s trial.
Contact staff writer Joan Garrett at jgarrett@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601.