Inset: Jordan Allen (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation). Background: The area near where Allen killed his brother and grandmother in Greeneville, Tenn. (Google Maps).
A Tennessee man is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his little brother as well as his grandmother.
Jordan Allen, 20, was only 16 years old at the time of the slayings that took the life of 7-year-old Jessie Allen and 59-year-old Sherry Cole.
The gruesome killings were carried out with a hammer and occurred in April 2022 at the family's home on Old Snapps Ferry Road in Greeneville, a small town some 30 miles southwest of Johnson City.
Allen's trial began on Monday, and jurors in Greene County began deliberating just a few minutes after 9 a.m. on Friday. The jury did not take long to reach a unanimous verdict, according to a courtroom report by Johnson City-based CBS and ABC affiliate WJHL.
Just after 11 a.m., Allen was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder. The sentencing phase of the trial began Friday afternoon.
The defendant, for his part, repeatedly blamed his grandfather, Bill Cole, for the murders – even accusing him while on the stand.
While testifying in his own defense, Allen said he was afraid of Bill Cole and had seen the older man striking the victims with a hammer.
Prosecutors, in turn, repeatedly drew the jury's attention to a confession Allen gave to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) in April 2022, in which he admitted killing his family, WJHL reported.
The defendant also addressed his confession by saying he lied to investigators due to his fear of his grandfather and because it was easier than telling the truth about the grisly crime.
Multiple times, while being cross-examined, Allen denied killing his brother and grandmother – and also disputed the notion that he had planned to kill them throughout the day.
"Do you remember saying in your second statement, 'I'd rather kill myself than do something to my little brother' because he's had a pretty rough life?" Allen's public defender asked him, WJHL reported.
To which Allen replied: "Absolutely."
Later, the lead prosecutor said the defendant "confessed to killing him in the next statement," referring to his younger brother.
The specter of domestic abuse was also raised and shot down during the proceedings, with prosecutors getting Allen to admit he had never seen his grandfather harm either victim. The defendant also conceded that Bill Cole had never once hurt him. The most Allen could say was that his grandfather sometimes raised his voice.
During the trial, jurors heard the victims' autopsy results.
Jessie Allen's head was caved in on one side due to the number and severity of hammer blows, the medical examiner testified.
The younger victim suffered multiple lacerations on his forehead and scalp as well as multiple skull fractures. When asked to account for which blow took the boy's life, the medical examiner demurred and said: "They're all fatal."
Sherry Cole suffered brain bruising, lacerations on the top of her head, and multiple stab wounds on the back of her neck.
The state also made substantial hay out of what the then-teenage killer did in the minutes and hours after the brutal murders.
Allen acknowledged seeing the results of the killings.
Under cross-examination, the defendant said he left home, then went to a friend's house, then went to a Little Caesars, and later went to a Walmart where he purchased a pair of headphones.
Asked why those were the choices he made after such a catastrophic event, Allen said he was in shock and that those destinations were simply his way of coping with the discoveries of the bodies.
"You say you devised this fact that you thought about it all day," a prosecutor asked. "That was your great escape plan to go to Little Caesars and Walmart. Is that what you thought about all day?"
Allen replied: "No."
Ultimately, the jury sided with the state.
"I know we got a guilty verdict, but there are just no winners here," Assistant District Attorney General Ritchie Collins said after the verdict. "Everybody loses. You heard Bill Cole dragged through the mud. He was accused of something he didn't do. He's lost a wife of 44 years and two grandkids. He's lost his entire life, his whole family. There are no winners. I wish I had something better to say, but there are no winners."
Prosecutors have requested life in prison without the possibility of parole — but that is not a foregone conclusion given Allen's young age at the time of the murders. That request will be voted on by jurors at the end of the sentencing phase.