CLARKSVILLE -- A Pope County man was sentenced in Johnson County Circuit Court on Tuesday to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the shotgun death last year of his cousin.
Nathaniel Talkington, 26, was set to have gone on trial Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge in the Oct. 31 or Nov. 1 slaying of Caleb Matthew Talkington.
Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons said Nathaniel Talkington was sentenced before Circuit Judge William Pearson to 30 years in prison with the suspended imposition of an additional 10 years.
Second-degree murder is defined as knowingly causing a death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life. First-degree murder is defined as intentionally taking a life.
According to an affidavit for an arrest warrant for Nathaniel Talkington last year, he told witnesses that he accidentally shot Caleb Talkington, 23, with a shotgun. The state medical examiner's office reported that Caleb Talkington died from a gunshot wound in his head.
Investigators interviewed Billy Parks of Hector shortly after the shooting, according to the affidavit. He told them that Nathaniel Talkington told him the shooting was accidental.
In an interview Friday with prosecutors, Parks said Nathaniel Talkington told him that Caleb Talkington had a pistol and was trying to steal 500 hydrocodone pills.
Johnson County sheriff's deputies and firefighters were called to Cabin Creek Park in Knoxville on Nov. 1 to respond to a car that was on fire, the affidavit said.
After extinguishing the fire in the 1998 BMW 500, the officers found a body burned beyond recognition in the trunk. The body later was identified through DNA testing as Caleb Talkington, owner of the BMW.
Johnson County authorities learned that Nathaniel Talkington had been staying at the home of Gary Thacker of London according to the affidavit. Thacker reported that a section of carpet was removed from the floor of his child's bedroom, that oil had been poured on his porch and that cleaning supplies and a knife were missing from the kitchen.
DNA testing of blood found on Thacker's porch and the threshold of the child's bedroom showed it matched that of Caleb Talkington, the affidavit said.
NW News on 09/30/2015