ELIZABETHTON â Three men charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 10-year-old Lillyhanna Davis made their first appearance in Carter County Criminal Court on Monday morning.
Jason Bryan Barber II, Jediah Shane Glover, and Zachary Scott Scalf each appeared before Judge Lisa Rice to enter not guilty pleas. Each man was dressed in the red and white striped uniform issued to prisoners of the Carter County Jail who are charged with felonies. The men have been held in pretrial confinement since their arrests in November.
In addition to the murder charge, each man is also facing eight counts of reckless endangerment, aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The men were originally in General Sessions Court, where they underwent a preliminary hearing on Jan. 8. Following that hearing, Judge Keith Bowers Jr. ordered them to appear in Criminal Court on April 12.
Their preliminary hearing was held Friday morning in Carter County Sessions Court.
After the hearing, Judge Keith Bowers Jr. bound over Jason Bryan Barber II, 18; Jediah Shane Glover, 20; and Zachary Scott Scalf, 20. Each is charged with first-degree murder, eight counts of aggravated assault reckless endangerment, possession of a firearm during commission of a felony and criminal conspiracy. The men are scheduled to appear in Carter County Criminal Court on April 12.
They remain in the Carter County Jail on pretrial confinement.
Bowers kept the bond for each man at $900,000. He also scheduled another preliminary hearing on Jan. 29 for Barber and Glover on counts of aggravated assault in a different shooting incident on Swimming Pool Road in Hampton.
Here are some of the high-profile local public safety stories in chronological order from 2020:
April 12: Adam Joseph Decker, 34, told investigators that a 9 mm weapon he was holding went off accidentally while he and Kristi Breland were cooking dinner on Easter Sunday. Decker told 911 dispatchers he had accidentally shot his live-in girlfriend at 107 M Coffey Lane, located in southern Washington County just below the Nolichucky River near Erwin. Deputies arrived to find Breland, 30, dead in the kitchen and Decker in the dining room. The couple had friends over earlier in the day for some target shooting. After the friends left, the couple went back into their residence and got into an alcohol-fueled argument, authorities said. Decker told police he decided to go to bed and when he picked up his pistol, it went off.