A 28 year old woman was found stabbed to death in her home on Cookeville Highway Thursday afternoon and her boyfriend has been charged with killing her.
42 year old Anthony (Tony) Tyrone Crews was taken into custody Thursday night and charged with second degree murder in the death of Ashley Bain. He remains in the DeKalb County Jail under a $250,000 bond. He will be in General Sessions Court February 12.
Sheriff Patrick Ray told WJLE Thursday night that Bain’s body was found lying on the floor of a bedroom at the home she and Crews shared at 3870 Cookeville Highway north of Smithville. She had been stabbed numerous times about the upper body. It’s not known exactly how long Bain had been dead by the time authorities were notified but Sheriff Ray said she had been seen alive earlier in the day on Thursday. A knife, believed to have been the murder weapon, was found in the home.
According to Sheriff Ray, Crews called 911 at 2:33 p.m. to report that he had discovered Bain’s body when he entered the residence. Sheriff Ray and members of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department were alerted and quickly arrived on the scene. The TBI and District Attorney General’s Office also joined the investigation. Sheriff Ray said authorities determined that Crews had committed the crime and made up the story about finding the body. Although officials believe they know the motive for the stabbing, Sheriff Ray said they are not releasing it at this time.
The warrant against Crews alleges that “on February 5th, 2015, at 3870 Cookeville Highway, Anthony Tyrone Crews did intentionally and knowingly kill Ashley Bain by stabbing her numerous times about the upper body”.
Bain’s body has been sent to Nashville for an autopsy.

Six basketball legends at DeKalb County High School were honored Thursday night between games as the Tigers and Lady Tigers hosted Cannon County.
Former Lady Tigers (Tigerette) Betty Carol Fite, Mary Ann Puckett, and Cynthia Woodward were recognized along with former Tigers Danny Foutch, Kevin James, and longtime Coach Harold Luna.
Each honoree stepped to center court during the introductions and stood beside current Tiger and Lady Tiger players who held banners bearing the names and jersey numbers of these former basketball stars as public address announcer Chris Vance cited their high school career accomplishments. Coach Luna’s banner bears his overall 516-179 win loss record. Each standout was greeted by enthusiastic applause from a gym filled with basketball fans. But the greatest fan reception was for Coach Luna. Touched by the rousing applause and standing ovation, the long time coach became emotional during the tribute to his long and successful career.
The following is a brief narrative of each honoree’s achievements at DCHS
Coach Harold Luna: Coached both boys and girls from 1964-69 and then he coached the boys program only through 1984. His total record was 516-179
Danny Foutch: (1974-78)
Foutch was All-District and All-Conference for three years, and as a senior in 1978, he was first team All-State, midstate Most Valuable Player, and led the state in scoring with a 31.4 points per game average, with a season high of 50 points. After high school, he went on to play four years at Belmont in Nashville.
Kevin James: (1976-80)
After averaging 23 points per game as a Junior and 20 points per game as a senior, Kevin James received many honors before his graduation in 1980. He was All-Conference, All-District, and All-Region as a Junior, and as a senior, he was a second team All-State selection and was first team Class AA All-Midstate. After high school, he continued his basketball career at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville.
Betty Carol Fite: (1961-1965)
During her illustrious career at DCHS she averaged 40.65 points per game and scored 3,481 career points as a high school player. She set a school record for 67 points in one game and held another record for most points in one quarter at 29. One season she scored 72 points more than the combined total of the Tigerette opponents. She made the All-Midstate Teams two years and was named Most Valuable Player in the mid-state as a senior in 1965. She also set two free throw records in the Tennessee State Playoffs.
Mary Ann Puckett: (1989-93)
She won the team’s MVP Award for three years in a row from her sophomore to senior years. Puckett rewrote the DCHS record book for five on five style girls basketball with 2,375 career points and 1,408 rebounds. Also named Best Defensive Player and Best Athlete, Puckett’s senior season statistics included 696 points (24 points per game), 393 rebounds (13.6 rebounds per game), 155 blocked shots and 77 steals. Puckett went to Duke University on a basketball scholarship and played for one season before transferring to Belmont University where she continued her basketball career which was cut short due to a medical condition.
Cynthia Woodward (2006-10)
During her high school basketball career, Woodward scored over 1100 points. Cynthia was named to the All District team in 2010; led her Lady Tigers to the program’s first post season win in 17 seasons, and her team advanced to the regional semi-finals in Cynthia’s senior season. After graduation, she began her collegiate basketball career at Freed Hardeman where during her senior season at one point she led the nation in 3-point percentage and helped guide Freed to an NAIA National Championship game.

Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County recently held its annual meeting. In addition to a regular agenda which included the highlights of 2014, outgoing President Larry Green presided over the election of the officers and board of directors for 2015.
Those elected as officers for the upcoming year include: Chad Driver, President; Evan Reid, Vice-President; Michael Barry, Secretary; and Larry Steffee, Treasurer. They will be joined on the board of directors by Marie Blair, John Carpenter, Brandon Cox, Glenda Davis, Jim Eddings, Rhonda Harpole, Gayla Hendrix, Gary Johnson, Mary Nell Summers, Becky Thompson, and Cindy Webb.
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, Christian housing ministry which builds and repairs houses all over the world using volunteer labor and donations. Partner families purchase these houses through no-profit mortgage loans or innovative financing methods. Habitat has constructed five homes in DeKalb County and is currently raising funds for its next project. If you would like to assist with fundraising efforts or donations, please contact a board member.

The Aldermen Monday night approved the list of officers and members of the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department for 2015.
Officers for the year are unchanged with Charles Parker to continue serving as Chief. Hoyte Hale is Deputy Chief, Jeff Wright is Captain, and Danny Poss, John Poss, and Donnie Cantrell are each Lieutenants.
Other members of the department are firefighters: William Brown, Wallace Caldwell, Gary Johnson, James R. Hunt, Stephanie Wright, Glen Lattimore, Cory Killian, Kevin Adcock, Patrick Edge, Becky Atnip, Bradley Johnson, C.J. Tramel, Photographer Greg Bess, Rookies Tyler Ludwig, Cody Fults, and Dalton Roberts, and Auxiliary Shawn Jacobs.
Chief Parker informed the Mayor and Aldermen that the process for selecting officers is being changed within the department from popular vote to being based on credentials and performance. “It will be based on years of service, amount of training, and other minimum requirements. We also evaluate on their attendance and performance,” said Chief Parker.

A 29 year old man charged in a meth case last September received a fourteen year prison sentence in DeKalb County Criminal Court Tuesday.
Judge Gary McKenzie presided.
Brandon Keith Thomas of Sparta Highway, Smithville pled guilty to initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine and two violations of probation. He received an eight year sentence to serve in the meth case to run concurrently with an eight year sentence for one of the violations of probation. But the eight year term is to run consecutively with a six year sentence for the other violation of probation putting the total sentence at fourteen years. He was given 136 days of jail credit.
Thomas was one of three people involved in the case. Both he and 40 year old Shawn Renee Gibson of McMinnville were each charged with initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine. Thomas’ mother, 54 year old Sharon Renee Thomas of Sparta Highway Smithville was charged with promotion of the manufacture of meth. The cases against both Gibson and Sharon Thomas remain pending in court.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said that on Saturday, September 20, 2014 a deputy received a tip of a possible meth lab at a residence on the Sparta Highway. Upon arrival, the deputy found the back door open and he saw Brandon Thomas inside shaking a bottle. Gibson was sitting on a bed in the room watching Thomas. The officer watched for several minutes until someone inside closed the door. The deputy then approached the home, knocked on the door, and heard a man inside say “it’s the cops”. When the back door was opened the deputy saw Brandon running out the front door. The officer called for Thomas to stop but he did not. The deputy went after Thomas and caught him in the front yard. Thomas admitted that everything in the house belonged to him and he gave consent for the officer to search. Inside Thomas and Gibson’s room, the deputy found draino, cold packs, Coleman fuel, muriatic acid, tubing and tubing with a bottle cap, coffee filters, an electric grinder, empty Claritin-D blister packs, a plastic bottle with muriatic acid, pliers, wire cutters, and digital scales.
Thomas then led the officer outside and showed him where he had disposed of a one pot cook bottle. Thomas confessed to manufacturing meth and he was placed under arrest. Gibson was also taken into custody. After being read her rights, Gibson allegedly admitted to knowing that meth was being made in the residence and participating by shaking the one pot cook bottle. In addition to the meth charge, Gibson was further issued a citation for simple possession and possession of drug paraphernalia after she was found with two valiums, two hypodermic needles, and a half ounce of marijuana.
After her son was arrested, Sharon Thomas was brought to the sheriff’s department for questioning where she admitted to purchasing Pseudoephedrine on three occasions for the purpose of her son being able to manufacture meth. She was then placed under arrest.
Meanwhile in a separate case, 24 year old Christopher Prince pled guilty to sale of a schedule II drug and received a three year sentence, suspended to supervised probation. He was fined $2,000. He is seeking judicial diversion if eligible. Prince was charged in a grand jury indictment as the result of an undercover drug investigation by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.

A three judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit on the trial court level against the DeKalb County Election Commission and several others in Tennessee brought in 2009 by former administrators of elections who claim they did not get to keep their jobs for political reasons.
Nashville Attorney John Harris, III, who represents the DeKalb County Election Commission in this case, told WJLE Monday that this is good news for the election commission. “Last week, we received an opinion from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the federal trial court’s initial decision that a Tennessee Administrator of Elections at the county election commission level is a position that can be terminated or even hired based upon political party affiliation. The significance of that is it means that if the plaintiffs in the case were correct in alleging that in 2009 they were terminated or not rehired because of their affiliation with the Democratic party, the 6th Circuit and the federal court hearing the case have now said that’s okay because the positions (administrators of elections) are political enough in nature that it is reasonable for the election commissions to consider party affiliation in making their employment decisions,” said Harris.
Former DeKalb County Election Administrator Lisa Peterson and other former administrators filed the lawsuit in July 2009 against the defendant county election commissions, claiming that their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when they were removed from their jobs because of their actual, or perceived, political party association. The former administrators asked the court to order their reinstatement, or in the alternative, order that they receive front pay for a reasonable amount of time. They wanted full back pay and a judgment for compensatory damages and punitive damages and an award for reasonable attorneys fees. Locally, the lawsuit named as defendants the three Republicans on the DeKalb County Election Commission James Dean, Walteen Parker, and Barbara Vanatta.
In February 2014, U.S. District Judge Kevin H. Sharp dismissed the case in favor of the election commissioners. The plaintiffs then appealed the case to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals as to whether the federal court’s ruling that the position of administrator of elections is a job under Tennessee law that has sufficient political significance that the individuals holding that position can be selected or deselected or fired based upon their party affiliation.
According to Harris, the plaintiffs are now basically left with two options should they want to pursue the case. They could ask for a review by the entire body of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals or file an appeal to the U.S Supreme Court seeking to overturn the federal court’s ruling that the position of Administrator of Elections is subject to political patronage. “The plaintiffs could now ask that the entire 6th Circuit reconsider the decision. That’s called an “ENBANC” request and it is discretionary. It has to be enough of the panel who think the three judges who decided the case made an error that they would want to reopen that can of worms so to speak. Alternatively, the plaintiffs could ask the United States Supreme Court to reconsider this ruling and take it up as a case in the court’s discretion. Again, it may be a situation where although that right technically exists there just may not be enough interest in it nationally to pursue it. But one of those (options) would have to occur within the next sixty days,” said Harris.

From the credible medical fiction DeKalb County writer, Dr. Barbara Ebel, the third Dr. Danny Tilson novel – Collateral Circulation: a Medical Mystery – makes its debut!
Tennessee neurosurgeon, Danny Tilson, is again mixed up in a baffling mystery that may be too good to be true, especially since it involves the enhanced development of the human brain. Wouldn’t exceptional IQs, coordination, eyesight and a host of other improvements benefit all of humanity? Danny thinks so but why is he skeptical after more and more patients are diagnosed with increased brain vasculature and advanced mental faculties?
“Besides Dr. Tilson’s focused attention on his surprising neurosurgical patients,” Ebel mentions, “his life continues to be plagued by Rachel, the mother of one of his children from an extra-marital affair. This time, she also plays a crucial role in the ongoing medical puzzle. None of the series’ novels are complete without her and this time both Rachel’s and Danny’s character development goes deeper than ever.”
The Midwest Book Review states: “This third addition to the Danny Tilson medical mystery series won’t disappoint either old fans or newcomers who love medical intrigue a la Robin Cook and the best medical writers in the genre. Perhaps that’s because it comes from the seasoned hand of a physician who is steeped in the world of medical description and events and whose professional pen thus effortlessly describes such scenarios.
“Contemporary and wide-ranging in scope, Collateral Circulation provides yet another powerful Danny Tilson medical mystery/thriller; and while it stands firmly alone and requires no prior introduction to its predecessors in order to prove satisfying, it’s safe to say newcomers will want to go back to the other books in the series for further character insights and adventure.”
Doctor Barbara’s Danny Tilson novels can each stand-alone but are best enjoyed by reading them in succession. Book One is Operation Neurosurgeon and Book Two is Silent Fear, a Medical Mystery. It has been by popular demand and rankings that she continues with her vivid characters and sequels. Silent Fear has received a stipend to become an audio book as well.
Barbara Ebel’s series takes place in Tennessee, where she lives in a protected wildlife corridor with her husband and pets. She has also written and illustrated a children’s book series about her therapy dog titled Chester the Chesapeake, another novel – Outcome, a Novel – and a health book, Younger Next Decade.
“Collateral Circulation” can be found as an eBook on Amazon.com, B&N Nook, KOBO and most online retailers. It is also a paperback on Amazon.com and will be available like her other books on Overdrive, etc. for major libraries.
Please visit the author and her books, links, reviews, awards and videos at: http://barbaraebel.weebly.com.