compiled by Patrick H. Moore
Crossville, Tennessee is a lovely town of around 10,000 situated atop the Cumberland Plateau in East Central Tennessee. 97 per cent white, it bills itself as the golf capital of Tennessee, boasting 12 courses. On Wednesday, three local teenage boys: Steven Presley, 17, Dominic Davis, 17, and John Lajeunesse, 16, and their designated driver, a popular 22-year-old woman named Danielle Jacobson, headed toward Renegade Mountain, a nearby resort area, to go four-wheeling, nothing out of the ordinary for young people in rural Tennessee.
They never came back. A Crossville resident discovered the car with with all four young people dead inside, parked along a country road near Renegade Mountain on Thursday morning. They had been fatally shot.
Although law enforcement has not yet divulged how they determined who the alleged shooter is, they already have a suspect in custody, Jacob Allen Bennett, 26, who they picked up on a parole violation without incident around midnight Thursday in nearby Rhea County. According to court records, Bennett had been booked in Cumberland County five times before this and was sentenced to two years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty in Fentress County to theft-related charges and of being a convicted violent felon in possession of a firearm.
District Attorney General Randy York, whose territory includes the crime scene, told reporters Friday that his office intends “in the very near future” to empanel a grand jury to consider bringing murder-related charges against Bennett.
In an effort to calm the fears of the citizenry, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn stated:
“The citizens of Cumberland County and Crossville can rest assured that we have the person who committed the crimes in custody, that the community is safe.”
Bennett is being held at Cumberland County jail. Apparently he and the victims knew each other “to some degree,” said Deputy District Attorney General Gary McKenzie, who declined to elaborate on a possible motive or any other details about the case. Law enforcement has been working diligently on the case since first learning about the deaths early Thursday morning.
“They’re kind of like robots, they’re still going,” said Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess of the state and local investigators. “To them, it’s not a job, especially when they see the circumstances involve kids. It hits home.”
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Crossville, indeed, all of Tennessee, is reeling in shock. Three of the victims were current or former students of the local school district.
“It’s something that reverberates through the entire community,” said Donald Andrews, Cumberland County’s school superintendent. “The loss of life is always tough, and especially (so) when it’s young people.”
The local residents are struggling to make sense of the bloodshed, but many are still insisting that these kinds of things just don’t happen in Crossville.
Michael Rick, who lives with John Lajeunesse’s family, said that he had dropped the 16-year-old off at Steven Presley’s house on Wednesday afternoon. Lajeunesse mentioned that the pair were going to go four-wheeling in the Renegade Mountain area and were going to spend the night at a friend’s house. When Lajeunesse didn’t call Rick to be picked up on Thursday, he had the eerie feeling that something was wrong.
“You just get that gut feeling when nothing is right.”
According to the Cumberland County Board of Education, Lajeunesse had attended two local high schools, and was currently being home-schooled. When interviewed, Rick stated that Lajeunesse loved skateboarding and hunting, and was very loving toward his family, dedicating himself to his mother, sister and baby niece.
The deceased driver, Danielle Jacobson, was the mother of a little boy:
“She loved her little boy more than life itself. She talked about her child a lot. That’s what saddens me the most,” said a friend, who asked not be named.
Dominic Davis was new to the Crossville area, having moved from Colorado. The fourth victim, Steven Presley, had graduated from Phoenix High School, a school for at-risk kids where he had reportedly thrived, in June.
The county seat for Cumberland, Crossville is located about 70 miles west of Knoxville and 110 miles east of Nashville. It’s a close-knit community that School Superintendent Andrews describes as a “down-home type community” where “everyone seems to know everyone.”
Students in the county’s 12 schools, particularly its three high schools, were told about the killings Friday morning, then encouraged to talk about it in class or with counselors.
“Some were very quiet, some were reflective, some were more open,” said Andrews. “The mood at the schools was very subdued.””It was just a surprise. It’s one of those ‘this doesn’t happen here’ kind of things. It’s actually a grim reminder to us all that we’re all vulnerable.”
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Although no one is saying anything definite, it’s being whispered that drugs played some part in this, perhaps a drug deal gone bad or a rip-off. Despite all the nice things that Michael Rick had to say about him, the fact that Lajeunesse had already attended two high schools and was being home-schooled could suggest that he was a kid with problems. Add to this the fact that Steven Presley had to attend a high school for at-risk children. Breaking Bad, anyone?
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Update:
Bob Fowler of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that although Jacob Allen Bennett reportedly blurted out an admission of guilt in his initial court appearance in September of last year, Cumberland County Criminal Court Judge David Patterson has denied a defense motion that the guilty admission be accepted.
According to Bennett’s attorney, Robert Marlow, his attempted plea, if accepted, would have limited his range of punishment to life in prison and prevented the state from going after the death penalty.
Judge Patterson’s rationale for rejecting Bennett’s proclamation of his is that it occurred before he was given the opportunity to represent himself, and that he hadn’t been properly arraigned at that time.
The judge added, “The court is concerned that the defendant didn’t understand what was going on.”
During a reconvened arraignment a few weeks later on Oct. 3, the state filed its intent to seek the death penalty and Robert Marlow was appointed to represent Bennett. Furthermore, “not guilty” pleas to the murder charges were entered on Bennett’s behalf at that time.
Based on evidence collected by case investigators following Bennett’s arrest, it’s now being reported that the case was indeed a “drug deal gone wrong”, but that the product being sold was supposed to be marijuana, not methamphetamine.