News Herald Arrest Report

Maryville couple facing murder charges
 
 
A Maryville man and woman have been charged with second-degree murder stemming from a December death in Greenback.
Whitney Nicol Armstrong, 28, and Christopher Steven Posey, 34, contributed to the Dec. 14 death of a Maryville woman found unresponsive in a bathroom at a residence in the 9600 block of Trigonia Road in Greenback after a night of drinking, according to a report from Loudon County Sheriff’s Office Inv. Marty Stanley.
 
Stanley said the woman was taken to the Greenback Corner Market on U.S. Highway 411 where family members met emergency medical services. The woman showed no signs of life, and was transported to Blount Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
 
“During the subsequent investigation, Facebook messages on (the woman’s) cellular telephone revealed that (the woman), Christopher Steven Posey and Whitney Nicol Armstrong met at (a gas station in Maryville) ... to exchange $100 for 0.3 grams of heroin,” Stanley wrote in the report. “During the Facebook Messenger exchange, Posey told (the woman) he would send in Armstrong to the bathroom to complete the transaction.”
 
The woman went to the restroom at 9:45 p.m. and was followed four minutes later by Armstrong. Surveillance video footage confirms that a minute later Armstrong left the restroom, followed shortly thereafter by the woman. The woman went home where she appeared coherent until found in the bathroom.
 
Armstrong and Posey were later arrested by Blount County Sheriff’s Office on unrelated charges.
 
“Armstrong admitted to taking a paper, which she believed contained heroin and/or fentanyl, into the bathroom and exchanging the paper for $100 from (the woman) at the direction of Posey,” Stanley reported.
 
The woman’s autopsy revealed she died from alcohol, heroin, fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl intoxication.
 
Results from the autopsy and toxicology came back a couple weeks ago, LCSO Lt. Shane Ezell said. Formal charges were brought Thursday against Posey and Armstrong, and Armstrong was transported to Loudon County. Posey remains in Blount County Jail, but will eventually be transported, Ezell said.
 
“We knew or had a 99.9 percent knowledge of what caused her death, but we had to wait on the autopsy to come back and the toxicology to come back before we could put formal charges on,” Ezell said. “… These investigations ... are hard to work because you have to have some cooperation with information that you get initially and you pretty much have to work a drug deal backward.”
The investigation remains ongoing, he said.
 
“We are getting hit with the opioid epidemic the same as everybody else,” Ezell said. “A lot of product people are buying on the street what they’re being told is heroin and it is not actually heroin. It’s all fentanyl, and then a lot of heroin on the street has fentanyl in it. There is no way to tell how much fentanyl.
 
“Fentanyl is a deadly drug when taken the wrong way and in the wrong amounts,” he added. “If you’ve got a person that’s used to shooting up a form of heroin and it’s mostly fentanyl, the drug in it that’s going to kill them is a lot more — could be more in that amount than they realize.”
 

Four people facing assault charges

Four individuals are facing multiple charges after law enforcement responded to an assault Thursday on Industrial Park Boulevard in Lenoir City.
 
Loudon County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Lance Anderson arrived at the 6000 block of Industrial Park Boulevard and spoke with a woman who claimed Jada Ann Allison, along with a woman and two men, forced their way into an apartment and assaulted the woman while she was on the living room sofa. Two male witnesses confirmed the woman’s story.
 
“(The woman) was able to run upstairs to a bathroom and lock herself in it,” Anderson wrote in a report. “(The woman) stated the offenders kicked open the door and began assaulting her again. (The woman) was unsure who had assaulted her the second time but stated all the offenders (were) in the bathroom recording the incident on a cellphone.”
 
One of the offenders said they were “strapped,” which the woman believed meant they were armed with a gun, Anderson wrote in the report. The group stole her cellphone and fled the apartment.
 
Anderson saw a broken bathroom door and blood splatter on the wall. The woman also had a broken or loose front tooth, possible broken nose and was severely swollen in her forehead and around her eyes. Other individuals determined to be involved in the incident were Anthony Wyatt Roach, Addison Isaiah Selvidge and Ciera Audri Godsey.
 
Loudon Police later located the group and found six cellphones, including the woman’s, inside the vehicle.
 
Loudon Police Officer Jonathan Yates about 10:45 p.m. observed a Nissan Altima travel south on Highway 11 and approach the Grove Street red light in Loudon. Yates saw the vehicle illegally pass a stopped vehicle in the left turn lane, and he activated his emergency lights and siren.
 
“The vehicle accelerated to a high rate of speed and passed a car on Grove Street traveling in (the) same direction,” Yates wrote in a report, noting he lost sight of the vehicle. “The driver was actively fleeing. … I immediately encountered the Nissan wrecked out in front of (the 1000 block of) Grove Street. The car was totaled with all air bags deployed.”
 
The vehicle hit a tree on the left side of the road and came to rest at the entrance of a nursing home.
 
Yates learned the four individuals were suspects in an aggravated assault case in Lenoir City.
 
Allison, 18, Lenoir City, was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, robbery, theft and vandalism and held on $44,000 bond.
 
Godsey, 21, Lenoir City, was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, robbery, theft and vandalism and held on $44,000 bond.
 
Roach, 25, Loudon, was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, theft, robbery, vandalism, reckless endangerment, evading and reckless driving and held on $100,000 bond.
 
Selvidge, 21, Lenoir City, was charged with aggravated assault, burglary, theft, robbery and vandalism and held on $44,000 bond.

Jan. 22

• Kenneth Justin Fields, 24, Philadelphia, was charged with driving on a revoked/suspended license and released on $2,000 bond.
 
• Allen Lee Johnson, 44, Lenoir City, was charged with driving under the influence and released on $1,000 bond.
 
• Jessica Marie Mandella, 22, Cleveland, was charged with failure to appear and held without bond.
 
• Jacquelyn Cassandra Wiest, 27, Kingston, was charged with general sessions court capias and released on $4,000 bond.

Jan. 23

• Clara Delma Robinette, 59, Lenoir City, was charged with failure to appear and violation of probation and held on $2,000 bond.
 
• Teresa Jane Teague, 60, Lenoir City, was charged with illegal possession/fraudulent use of a credit card and released on $2,500 bond. From Sept. 1 to about Sept. 10, Teague used a stolen credit card from her neighbor, according to Lenoir City Police Department Sgt. Lynette Ladd. Teague is seen using the card in video footage at a retail store on U.S. Highway 321. “Teague previously confessed to using a different debit card belonging to (the neighbor) without her consent,” Ladd wrote in a report. “The total amount of these illegal transactions was $2,144.13. We have Teague on video using the card on approximately 20 occasions at the Lenoir City (retail store).” The neighbor was unaware of activity until she received her statement in the mail.
 
• James Edward Tipton, 46, Knoxville, was charged with three counts of theft of property and four counts of vandalism and held on $10,500 bond. On or around Oct. 5, Tipton took money from a soft drink machine at a motel on U.S. Highway 321, LCPD Sgt. Lynette Ladd wrote in a report. “Tipton did use a drill to break into the lock of a Coke machine to take the money,” Ladd wrote in a report, noting $120 was taken.

Jan. 24

• Gary Lynn Grimmett, 33, Maryville, was charged with driving on a revoked/suspended license and held without bond.
 
• Hannah Nicole Jones, 29, Knoxville, was charged with violation of probation and held on $2,000 bond.
 
• Jessie Lee Koontz, 26, Rockford, was charged with burglary and held without bond.
 
• Misty Pearl Lewis, 41, Loudon, was charged with possession of a Schedule II substance and simple possession/casual exchange and held without bond.
 
• Sylvestre Christ Velasquez, 24, Loudon, was charged with violation of probation and held without bond.

Jan. 25

• Deborah Marie Correll, 46, Maryville, was charged with theft over $1,000 and held on $10,000 bond.
 
• John Michael McDavid, 35, Kingston, was charged with driving on a revoked/suspended license and held on $2,500 bond.
 
• Kellie Brooke McGraw, 25, Loudon, was charged with general sessions court capias and simple possession/casual exchange and released on $2,000 bond.
 
• Juan A. Lopez Guzman, 25, Lenoir City, was charged with simple possession/casual exchange and possession of drug paraphernalia and released on $3,000 bond.
 
• Jose Santiago Lopez-Ventura, 18, Silver Springs, Md., was charged with driving without a license and held on $2,000 bond.
• Paul A. Sackett, 61, Lenoir City, was charged with criminal trespass and released on $1,000 bond.

Jan. 26

• Richard Thomas Godsey, 45, Loudon, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and simple possession/casual exchange and held without bond.
 
• Jonathan Keith Hewitt, 20, Hixon, was charged with driving under the influence and released on $3,000 bond.
 
• Nicole Aletha Kerr, 31, Lenoir City, was charged with aggravated burglary, theft of property, aggravated criminal trespassing, possession of drug paraphernalia and theft under $500 and held on $10,000 bond. Kerr allegedly entered a residence on Kerr Street and took several items. “These items included but were not limited to handguns, tools, televisions, jewelry, cash and other personal property valued at more than $2,500 and less than $10,000,” LCSO Inv. Sgt. Charlie Cosner, wrote in a report. On Jan. 10, two women reported they went to the residence to check on a resident and when they entered they saw Kerr running out the back door. They found the items on social media where Kerr had them listed for sale.
 
• Artemos J. Ross, 27, Lenoir City, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and simple possession/casual exchange and released on $2,000 bond.
 
• Jose Daniel Velasco, 24, Loudon, was charged with driving under the influence and released on $1,500 bond.

Jan. 27

• Jerry Thomas Reed, 57, Maryville, was charged with driving under the influence and held on $2,000 bond. Dispatched to the 4000 block of U.S. Highway 321 for a possible intoxicated driver, Lenoir City Police Officer Cole Morgan arrived to see Reed with his head against the fuel pump attempting to hold his balance and trying to zip his pants. Morgan smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage odor coming from Reed and noticed he was unsteady on his feet. “I asked him if he had anything to drink (and) he replied no,” Morgan wrote in a report. “A bottle of wine was in plain sight in the driver’s seat so I asked him again if he had anything to drink and he said no.” Reed performed poorly on standardized field sobriety testing. He said he took Ibuprofen after asked if he was on prescription medication. He then stated he had an alcoholic beverage an hour prior. Morgan believed Reed was under the influence of a substance other than alcohol.
 
• Dennis Ray Torbett, 56, Etowah, was charged with violation of probation and held on $3,000 bond.
 
• Jeremy Daniel Wample, 35, Lenoir City, was charged with simple possession/casual exchange and held without bond.
 
• Pamela Patricia Chastain, 39, Knoxville, was charged with violation of probation and held without bond.

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2/4/19