Guilty verdicts were handed out for the Potters and Curd pleaded guilty. After a six-day trial, the two were convicted of planning the Jan. 31, 2012, shooting deaths of Bill Payne, 36, and Billie Jean Hayworth, 23, inside that couples Johnson County home. I was horrible. Jenelle Potter lived with her parents Barbara Potter and Marvin Potter, pictured together here. While being questioned by detectives, Marvin said, Ever since all this crap started, Ive had my life threatened. Assistant District Attorney Dennis Brooks will officially release Too Pretty to Live: The Catfishing Murders of East Tennessee on Tuesday by Diversion Publishing. "She may be on a fourth-grade level, but she has a Ph.D. in manipulation," Brooks, the prosecutor, said. He pleaded guilty to facilitation to commit murder Tuesday prior to the Potter womens sentencing hearing. Acrees ruling, filed Wednesday in Washington County, stated that Fallins representation of both Marvin and Barbara Potter negated Barbara Potter of a fair trial. He told Barbara, I did it. That's as close to a confession as we got from him, said Lott. Mountain City is located just a few miles from both the Virginia and North Carolina state lines. In the upcoming months, officials will decide whether the Potter women will receive a new trial, get a chance at an appeal, or be left to serve their sentences as planned. Subscriber Verification(Must be Logged In Using Free Account). Attorney Scott Shults, right, talks to his client, Barbara Potter on Wednesday, July 14. — -- Jenelle Potter was a sheltered young woman. Washington County District Attorney's Office. Updated: Nov 11, 2021 / 06:49 PM EST WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) - Barbara Potter, the mother in a family trio all convicted of first-degree murder in the 2012 killing of a Mountain. Their infant son was still cradled in his dead mothers arms. / CBS News. Barbara got it to happen.. Jenelle Potter said she had trouble making friends when she lived in Mountain City, Tenn. Jenelle Potter was jealous of the couples relationship and created a CIA agent, named Chris, to get into touch with her parents, Brooks said. ", Jenelle Potter said of communicating with the supposed CIA agent Chris through email, "I thought he was someone that I was friends with in school. Best Places to Live in Mountain City, Tennessee State: Tennessee County: Johnson County Metro Area: No Metro Area City: Mountain City Zip Codes: 37683 Cost of Living: -26.8% lower New! Prosecutor Brooks told the jury that Jenelle authored all the emails from Chris by pointing out the childish writing and misspellings matched her pattern of speech. We won't share it with anyone else. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Marvin Potter said he shot Payne accidentally, but intentionally slit the mans throat because of the threats Potter believed Payne had made toward Jenelle. 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Whats happening this weekend around the Tri-Cities? The day after the womens verdict was announced, Brooks said he tried to unwind, but the facts of the case stayed on his mind. That's -57.88% lower than the national rate of 2,346.0 per 100,000 people and -68.79% lower than the Tennessee total crime rate of 3,165.5 per 100,000 people. Schults reportedly told JCP that Barbara requested him to reach a deal with prosecutorsagainst his advicebecause she did not want to go through another trial. NeighborhoodScout provides exclusive crime risk analytics for every neighborhood in America with up to 98% predictive accuracy. "Match Any Neighborhood" calculates the Match Level of one neighborhood to another using more than 200 characteristics of each neighborhood. They kept referring to a guy Chris thats supposedly a CIA operative or something, special agent Lott said. Importantly, when you compare Mountain City to other communities of similar population, then Mountain City crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Armed with evidence that he believed proved the entire family was involved, prosecutors also charged Barbara Potter and Jenelle Potter in the killings. Winds light and variable.. Clear skies. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. Furthermore, a conflict existed between counsels loyalties to Petitioner and her husband as clients and what can be described (for lack of a better phrase) as Mr. Fallins business relationship with the Potters. Jenelle Potter said she had trouble making friends when she lived in Mountain City, Tenn. Jenelle Potter, left, and Jamie Curd, right, started dating after Tracy Greenwell set them up. Curd was sentenced to 25 years in prison and will be eligible for parole after serving 30 percent. I did that on purpose, Marvin testified about slitting Paynes throat in his confession at the post-conviction hearing. When Brooks was through, Criminal Court Judge Lisa Rice reportedly asked Barbara if she agreed that what the prosecutor described would be the evidence presented against her in court if she were to be tried again. However, Jessica Fallin, in addition to being counsels daughter, was her fathers employee. This conflict, Petitioner asserts, denied her a fair trial and also constituted the ineffective assistance of counsel; B. Mr. Fallin rendered ineffective assistance of counsel at trial based on counsels other actions at trial and on appeal; C. The State withheld exculpatory evidence, in violation of its obligations under Brady v. Maryland, thus denying Petitioner due process and a fair trial.. Payne and Hayworth were shot inside their Johnson County home early that morning while Payne was getting ready for work. . Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in. In the last 5 years Mountain City has seen decline of violent crime and decreasing property crime. She didnt have a job or drive a car. Where is 2022 data? Marvin Potter and Jamie Lynn Curd. Our nationally-comparable school ratings are covered under US Patent No. A gruesome execution style double murder of a young couple shakes a small mountain community in Eastern Tennessee. Cause I wasnt born and raised here. Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Emailus. Hayworth died while holding her 7-month-old baby boy. She said she was the victim of anonymous cyberbullying, some of which she believes came from Hayworth. [They] threatened to get [me] raped, Jenelle said. From time to time, Curd would visit the Potter house to fix the family computer. Because you are guilty? Rice asked. He had dogs. I changed my password lots of times. Garland also had some harsh words for Barbara Potter, answering a question posed in one of Barbaras emails. Payne, 36, and Hayworth, 23, were killed about three years ago in their Mountain City home by Marvin Potter and Jamie Curd. However, a judge granted her a new trial after finding that her attorney, Randy Fallin, had a conflict of interest when he represented her in her 2015 trial because he had also represented Buddy Potter, who was convicted in 2013, and was continuing to represent him during the appeals process. According to a release from the Mountain City Police Department, officers were called to the 300 block of Industrial Drive on November 14, 2020. After Curds plea on Tuesday, state prosecutors Assistant District Attorneys Matt Roark and Dennis Brooks presented two witnesses to testify about how the deaths of Payne and Hayworth affected them and their families. In one incident, police photographed a rock, pictured above, that was found in the Potters front yard with the names Billy Payne and Billie Jean written on it. They have an 8-month-old baby, who was found unharmed in Hayworth's arms. Mountain City crime rates are 58% lower than the national average Violent crimes in Mountain City are 47% lower than the national average In Mountain City you have a 1 in 102 chance of becoming a victim of crime Mountain City is safer than 62% of the cities in the United States Year over year crime in Mountain City has decreased by 32% appearing in washington county court on wednesday, barbara potter, 69, pleaded guilty to two counts of . ", Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Brig. The Oscars will air on ABC and can be streamed on ABC.com and the ABC app as well as Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV or FuboTV. Allegedly, threats and bullying on Facebook and the Mountain City, TN Topix forum added fuel to the fire, which eventually led to an early morning visit to the house on James Davis Lane by Marvin Potter and Jenelles boyfriend, Jamie Curd. Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Crime risk indices are nationally comparable on a 1 100 scale, where 100 means safer than 100% of U.S. neighborhoods. Rice then asked how she wanted to plead. In a tiny town in Tennessee, a young couple are brutally shot, execution style in their home. But when police took a look at the computer they seized from the Potters' home, they learned the emails from the CIA agent Chris were all coming from an account that belonged to Jenelle Potter, and a review of the IP address confirmed that. I just needed to lay it out. All three Potters are serving two life sentences each for the murders. Please subscribe to keep reading. "I don't want anybody murdered. You have permission to edit this article. Counsel made no such arguments despite the evidence which was available to support the arguments. Listen to Mountain City, TN - Unfriended Facebook Murders and seventy-seven more episodes by Every Town, free! We interviewed our tech expert, Jaime Vazquez, to learn more about accessible smart home devices. His letter accused Reece of damaging the prosecutions case with his public comments. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. She could assume a different identity and be as hateful as she wanted to be, Brooks said. 8,376,755. Police later moved in and arrested Marvin in a pre-dawn raid in February 2012. "I didn't murder anyone," Jenelle Potter told ABC News' "20/20.". 2021. For Jenelle Potter, she will be 86 years old when shes eligible for release. But when an online feud erupted, two of her former friends were found murdered in their home while their baby survived. I think they would be called masterminds. Your e-mail address will be used to confirm your account. This is possible by associating the 9.4 million reported crimes in the U.S, including over 2 million geocoded point locations. And if I have to forgive any of youns to stay out of hell, Ill see you there, Garland said. Jenelle Potter's mother, Barbara Potter, told "20/20" that Chris told her in emails that he was watching her family's every move and was monitoring what Payne and Hayworth were allegedly saying on social media about her daughter. Raw crime incidents are sourced from all 18,000+ local law enforcement agencies municipal, county, transit, park, port, university, tribal and more, assigned to localities, then built into NeighborhoodScouts proprietary predictive models to provide a comprehensive crime risk profile for every neighborhood and address-vicinity in the U.S. More about NeighborhoodScouts crime data methodology, By sending this Report you agree to NeighborhoodScout's, My Chances of Becoming a Victim of a Jerry Lambe is a journalist at Law&Crime. It is available as an e-edition book at all major online book retailers, as well as in print. On July 13 and July 14, the Washington County Criminal Court revisited a crime that put a national focus on the small town of Mountain City. Jenelle Potter's defense attorney Cameron Hyder said, "Jenelle Potter operates on the level of an 8- or 9-year-old.. Instead of being herself, my parents tried to make her fit in. Barbara Potter, 69, of Mountain City, has been serving two life sentences alongside her daughter, Jenelle Potter, 38, in the Jan. 31, 2012, shooting deaths of Billy Payne, 36, and Billie Jean Hayworth, 23. Hed have given the testimony he gave yesterday.. Billie Jean Hayworth and Billy Payne were found shot dead in their home. It turned out there really was a person named Chris Chris Tjaden, a police officer in Delaware who attended high school with Jenelle Potter who prosecutors said Jenelle based her fictitious CIA friend on. Jenelle Potter lived with her parents Barbara Potter and Marvin Potter, pictured together here. Have a tip or story idea? That sentence is also concurrent to her life sentences. The 7-month-old boy survived unharmed. Other US patent applications are currently pending. Left to right: Jamie Curd, and his attorney Casey Sears sit with Barbara Potter (foreground), Jenelle Potter and her attorney Cameron Hyder during the sentencing hearing Tuesday as Barbara Potter's attorney, Randy Fallin addresses the court.Becky Campbell. "I didn't murder anyone," Jenelle Potter told ABC News' "20/20. Choose wisely! Somebody hated her. Shults, who represented Barbara Potter in this part of her appeal, said his client was entitled to due process and independent counsel for her trial. Subscribe Now. Listen to "39: Catfishing in Mountain City, TN: The Facebook Murders" on Spreaker. Later that week, authorities brought Curd in and asked him to take a polygraph test, which indicated he lied about knowing the identity of Payne and Hayworths killer. I unfriended them. MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) A Mountain City man has been charged with second-degree murder after allegedly shooting a man in the neck in November 2020. An agent meticulously reconstructed the shredded papers found in Marvin Potter's truck, pictured here, which appeared to be thousands of emails sent to the Potter family. I did Bill first and then I think Billie did me. And, finally, they just pushed him to his limit where he couldn't take it anymore.. Story of Mountain City Facebook murders reaches national audience in book, tv special. His testimony has to be taken in light of the massive bias hed have to help his family, and it would have to be evaluated in light of the other evidence in the case, Brooks explained. She was feeding Barbaras delusions, so Barbara ignores the signs that something is amiss here., Jenelle and Her Mom Go on Trial for the Murders. Invalid password or account does not exist. He testified in the trial that some of the photos Jenelle and her mother emailed back and forth were from the public portion of his Facebook page, but most of them were not him at all. In May 2015, three and a half years after the shootings, Jenelle and Barbara finally went on trial. Choose wisely! Marvin Potter, Barbara Potter and Jenelle Potter are all planning to appeal their convictions. Low 33F. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. There was a problem saving your notification. Curd's initial bond was raised to $1.5 million while Potter remains jailed on his initial $200,000 bond. Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. I already knew the story, he said. Chris promised that he would have their back if they acted to protect Jenelle. It takes a cold-blooded person to shoot someone holding a baby, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Scott Lott told 20/20.. Jenelles Dad Admits to Being Involved in Murders. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.