A delay in one defendant’s trial in Franklin County’s 2013 cornfield killing spells delays for his three co-defendants’ trials in the slaying of 26-year-old Corey N. Matthews.
Matthews’ body was found in a cornfield east of Cowan, Tenn., almost two years ago.
Defendant David Gordon Jenkins’ trial was to have started on Tuesday but Jenkins must get a new lawyer, according to an order filed in Franklin County Circuit Court. That order triggered a delay in the cases against co-defendants John Corey Lanier, Coty Keith Holmes and Todd E. Dalton. All four men are charged with first-degree murder and felony murder.
Jenkins’ new trial date is May 4.
David Gordon JenkinsThe four men’s cases, already separated from one another in earlier court actions, will be tried in the order initial trial dates are established, 12th Judicial District Attorney General Mike Taylor said on Tuesday.
That means Jenkins still goes first. All four men are listed as going to trial on May 4, but only Jenkins will actually go to trial that day if no other motions create a delay, court officials said. New court dates for the other three men probably won’t be reset until Jenkins’ trial date is firm or his trial begins.
“We’ll just move everybody ahead,” Taylor said.
At the time they were charged in 2013, Jenkins was 46, Lanier was 26, Dalton was 39 and Holmes was 25. They are all being held in separate jails in surrounding counties, jail officials said.
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 Slag Town Road cornfield 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, TBI 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 Officer Mike Holmes stopped to talk to the family that day and drove out beyond Matthews’ Tennessee Avenue home to look for him. The officer spotted Matthews’ body just outside the city limits in a cornfield across from a tiny graveyard named 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.