David Gordon Jenkins
One of the four men charged in the March 2013 killing of Corey N. Matthews was found guilty of murder on Thursday by a Franklin County, Tenn., jury.
The first of the four defendants in the case to stand trial, 48-year-old David Gordon Jenkins, was convicted of first-degree murder, according to 12th Judicial District Assistant District Attorney Steve Blount.
The judge in the case has set a sentencing hearing for June 9.
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 Matthew’s death. The ages are listed as they were upon the men’s arrests.
The three remaining suspects will be tried separately if their cases go to trial, officials say.
The four defendants have ties to white supremacy groups, as did Matthews. 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.
Cowan, Tenn., police 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 early in the investigation. The officer spotted Matthews’ body just outside the city limits in a cornfield across Slag Town Road from a tiny graveyard called Jackson Cemetery.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1or 423-757-6569.