Two charged in McMinn County shooting that left one dead, one injured

Esau C. Kelly and Melissa K. Pueirtt
Esau C. Kelly and Melissa K. Pueirtt
photo Contributed photo by McMinn County Sheriff Office / Esau C. Kelley, 24, is charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the Sept. 18, 2021, slaying of 54-year-old Mary Denise Dalton and the nonfatal shooting of 31-year-old Jonathan C. Burger.

A shooting Saturday in McMinn County, Tennessee, led to arrests of an Ooltewah man and an Etowah woman in an incident that left one dead and another injured.

Esau C. Kelly, 24, of Ooltewah, is charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder, while Melissa K. Pueirtt, 45, of Etowah, is charged as an accessory after the fact, according to records at the McMinn County Sheriff's Office in Athens, Tennessee.

The pair are charged in the fatal shooting of Mary Denise Dalton, 54, and the nonfatal shooting of Jonathan C. Burger, 31. Both victims lived at a residence on County Road 202, officials said in an earlier statement. Burger was taken to a local hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

There were no new details on what led to the incident when the arrests were announced Monday. Sheriff's deputies and investigators from the 10th Judicial District Attorney General's Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation assisted in the probe over the weekend.

photo Contributed photo by McMinn County Sheriff Office / Melissa Pueirtt, 45, is charged with being an accessory after the fact in the Sept. 18, 2021, slaying of 54-year-old Mary Denise Dalton and the nonfatal shooting of 31-year-old Jonathan C. Burger.

Sheriff Joe Guy said three people went to the home on County Road 202 where Dalton and Burger lived around 8 p.m. Saturday. One member of the visiting party produced a firearm and fired the shots that killed Dalton and injured Burger, Guy said.

As detectives probed the incident, two of the trio, including Pueirtt, were found in nearby Etowah, and Kelly was located in Ooltewah, near Chattanooga, and charged as the alleged shooter, Guy said Tuesday.

Kelly is held on a $350,000 bond and Pueirtt is being held on a $10,000 bond. Both were arraigned on their charges Tuesday in General Sessions Court, McMinn County court officials said. The suspects had no lawyers on record Tuesday, officials said.

Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton.

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