Skip to content

Tennessee news briefs

Tennessee news briefs

Posted: Friday, May 6, 2011 8:01 pm

Shelby man convicted of killing another appeals
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Shelby County man serving an 18-year prison sentence in a parking lot shooting that killed another man is seeking a new trial.
Attorneys for Harry Ray Coleman argued at a hearing on Thursday that Coleman had a previously undiagnosed mental illness when Robert “Dutch” Schwerin Jr. was fatally shot over a parking dispute in 2009.
Coleman was handed the prison sentence after a jury convicted him in December on a second-degree murder charge.
Defense attorney William Massey argued his client was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 Disorder with psychotic features only after he attempted to kill himself following his conviction.
Prosecutor Paul Hager-man said that claims of Coleman’s diminished capacity had already been aired during the sentencing hearing.
Judge John Fowlkes will rule on the motion on June 2.
———
Shot administrators earn doctorates
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Doctorates will be conferred upon two public school administrators who were shot and wounded in an attack last year in Knoxville.
Elisa Luna, the principal at Inskip Elementary School, and Amy Brace, the assistant principal there, will receive doctoral degrees in education leadership on Thursday.
UT professor Bob Kronick, who chaired Luna’s doctoral dissertation, told The Knoxville News Sentinel Luna and Brace have bonded as friends as they recover from their wounds.
Former Inskip teacher Mark Stephen Foster awaits trial on attempted murder charges in the shooting.
Foster is accused of shooting the administrators in the school office after being told his teaching contract would not be renewed.(backslash)
Luna uses a wheel chair because of a spinal injury in the shooting.

Published in The Messenger 5.6.11