Marcus SuttonA year after killing his former high school classmate, Marcus Eugene Sutton is going to prison.
Sutton pleaded guilty last week to three separate crimes, with charges ranging from manslaughter to rioting in a penal institution and four counts of aggravated assault. Superior Court Judge Jon "Bo" Wood sentenced Sutton to 30 years in prison, followed by 10 years on probation.
The string of crimes began on Sept. 29, 2013, according to a news release from Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert "Buzz" Franklin. Sutton, 21, had just gotten out of prison on charges of aggravated assault, possession of a weapon in the commission of a crime and carrying a weapon at school.
Then, in September, he and Tyler Roberts went to a Rossville apartment, looking for a man they had threatened to kill. Sutton drove. Roberts (who pleaded guilty in June) opened fire toward the building. Their target was actually across the street, watching from a friend's apartment.
Sutton, 21, escaped. On Oct. 30, 2013, he got into an argument with 23-year-old Anderson Trammel Watts Jr., his former Ridgeland High School classmate. Then he shot Watts seven times with a .40-caliber handgun.
Walker County Captain Steve Rogers Jr. said in an email that Sutton and Watts argued for two reasons: They were seeing the same woman, and Watts had just received $2,000.
"Both of those way [sic] heavily with Sutton who wanted to be the leader, a role Watts had been filling," Rogers said.
Neither Watts nor Sutton lived at the location of the crime, a duplex at 22 Fisher Road. The person who did live there, Melvin Tibbs, told investigators last year that he was gone when Watts died.
Tibbs said he was walking his dog when the shooting happened. But at the time, Wilson said Tibbs' story did not make sense. The woman on the other side of the duplex told the sheriff's office she heard Tibbs' dog barking as soon as Sutton fired the shots. Then, moments later, she saw Tibbs outside the duplex, claiming the dog had just run away.
Tibbs was not charged in relation to the crime. Rogers said he was going to be a key witness for prosecutors.
After the shooting, Sutton escaped arrest again. But officers found him six days later, hiding in a Chattanooga home at 3005 Fifth Ave.
On March 27, five months after the killing, Sutton and Brandon Chase Lonas beat up another inmate named Steven Adam Powell, causing "significant injuries," according to Franklin's news release.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.