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Porter was just a day shy of his 87th birthday at the time of his passing.
He served as a circuit court judge for the Fourth Judicial District form 1974 to 1993, hearing criminal and civil cases in Sevier, Grainger, Cocke and Jefferson counties.
âHe tried so many murder cases,â said current Circuit Court Judge Rex Ogle, who was mentored by Porter early in his career.
The Rocky Top case was among the more infamous, drawing intense attention at the time and later getting featured on shows like City Confidential.
It involved a group of four people who killed two workers at the Rocky Top Village Inn in Gatlinburg on Sept. 13, 1986. The night clerk, Melissa Hill, and a security guard, Troy Dale Valentine, were brutally killed during an apparent robbery.