A jury on Monday night found 60-year-old Tony Bigoms guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and abuse of a corpse in his retrial on the killing and dismemberment of 48-year-old Dana Wilkes in 2012.
On the charge of first-degree murder, Judge Barry Steelman sentenced Bigoms to life in prison. A sentencing hearing for the charge of abuse of a corpse is set for December.
The prosecution and defense rested their cases Monday afternoon. Bigoms chose not to testify in the trial.
Wilkes was last seen Nov. 9, 2012. Her body – headless and handless – was found down an embankment in the 3700 block of Youngstown Road next to South Chickamauga Creek on Nov. 25 of the same year. Her head and hands were never found.
Staff file photo / Tony Bigoms listens during jury selection for his first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse trial in the November 2012 slaying of Dana Wilkes in Judge Barry Steelman’s courtroom at the city-county courts building on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The jury for the trial has been sequestered and are expected to work into the weekend to reach a verdict.Bigoms’ attorneys moved for a judgment of acquittal, arguing the state hadn’t proved beyond reasonable doubt that Bigoms was the one who killed Wilkes.