The double homicide trial of the Bledsoe County, Tennessee, man accused of hacking a 46-year-old mother and her 24-year-old daughter to death with an ax in 2017 has a trial date set for August now that Tennessee’s court system is set to resume normal operations July 1 for the first time since the pandemic started.
Robert Joe Whittenburg, 47, of Pikeville, Tennessee, faces a trial Aug. 3 on two counts of first-degree murder in the Nov. 30, 2017, slayings of Deanna Lawrence and her adult daughter, Dedra Lawrence, at a home on Sawmill Road in Pikeville, according to court officials.
Whittenburg is represented by Dunlap, Tennessee-attorney Sam Hudson. Officials in Hudson’s office said he was in court Wednesday and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Whittenburg was arrested at the scene but wasn’t indicted in the slayings until the grand jury heard the case in March 2018. Bledsoe County’s grand jury meets three times a year – March, July and November, court officials said.
In August 2018, Whittenburg’s first trial date was set for May 2019, but a defense motion regarding laboratory testing of hair that was on the suspected murder weapon delayed the trial date until June 2020. The pandemic hit in the interim and Tennessee’s court system ground to a halt.