| Sources |
- [S23] Atchley Funeral Home, (http://www.atchleyfuneralhome.com/), 17 Nov 2009.
Leah Victoria Avril
June 13, 1991 - November 17, 2009
Birthplace: Sevier County, Tennessee
Resided In: Sevierville, Tennessee
Visitation: November 21, 2009
Service: November 22, 2009
Cemetery: Caton's Chapel Cemetery
Leah Victoria Avril, age 18 of Sevierville, passed away from this life to be in the presence of her Heavenly Father on Tuesday, November 17, 2009.
She was born on June 13, 1991. Leah was a Christian and a beautiful person inside and out. She loved her family and many friends. She was a 2009 graduate of Sevier County High School and was attending Walter State Community College. She had accumulated 12 college credits and was awarded numerous scholarships.
She was preceded in death by grandfather, Victor Boling, aunt Barbara Jane Boling, and great-grandparents Rev. Marshall and Cora Parton and Isaac and Elzora Boling.
She is survived by her:
Mother: Shirley Boling Sanders
Father: Chris Avril
Sister and brother-in-law: Amy and Jason Thomason
Special adoring niece: Haley Thomason
Grandmother: Gladys Parton Boling
Grandparents: Bill and Josette Avril
Uncles and aunts: Jack and Lorene Boling, Sue and Jimmy Whaley, Joann and Steve Finchum, Roger Boling and Peggy, Bonnie and Tim Loan, Darlene and Ralph Stinnett, Darrell and Teresa Boling, Jason Avril, Lisa and Phil Savage
Numerous cousins and friends
Funeral service 2 PM Sunday at First Baptist Church, Sevierville with Rev. Leroy Parton and Rev. Scott Carter officiating. Interment will follow in Caton’s Chapel Cemetery. The family will receive friends 4-8 PM Saturday at First Baptist Church, Sevierville. Arrangements by Atchley Funeral Home, Sevierville. (www.atchleyfuneralhome.com)
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 18 Nov 2009.
Man faces murder charge; 21-year-old arrested in shooting death
By JEFF FARRELL
SEVIERVILLE — Sheriff’s deputies have charged a local man with second-degree murder after a woman he allegedly shot died on the way to University of Tennessee Medical Center.
Leah V. Avril, 18, of 856 Robert Henderson Road in Sevierville, was pronounced dead at UT Medical Center after medical personnel airlifted her to the facility Tuesday night. She was reportedly conscious when emergency medical technicians reached her at 160 Murrell Meadows Apt. 21, but lost consciousness before reaching the helicopter. The apartments are located on Newport Highway near Highway 339.
Sheriff Ron Seals said she had a gunshot wound to the chest.
It took about nine minutes for deputies to arrive at the scene after the first call came in at 5:52 p.m., Seals said.
Deputies charged Jacob A. Stanton, 21, with second-degree murder. He was being held Wednesday at the Sevier County Jail.
While a press release from the sheriff’s department said Stanton lived at the same address where the shooting occurred, people at the apartment complex Wednesday told The Mountain Press that neither Stanton nor Avril actually resided there. The resident of the apartment was not home at the time of the shooting, they said.
Some people at the complex said they had heard that the shooting was accidental.
“I heard they were a couple, and I heard it was an accident,” said Alex Martin, who said he had moved to the area only recently.
When asked about the possibility the shooting was unintentional, Seals declined to comment beyond saying an autopsy was being performed and the investigation was continuing.
Martin said the shooting is not indicative of life in the apartment complex.
“I don’t think it should say anything about the people that live here or the management,” he said. “No matter where you live in the world, you’re going to have situations like this happen.”
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 22 Jan 2011.
Stanton charges changed
by JEFF FARRELL
Jacob Stanton
SEVIERVILLE — The Sevier County grand jury upgraded charges against a Sevierville man from second-degree murder to first-degree murder.
Jacob Stanton originally was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Leah Avril in November 2009. He has remained in jail ever since; his bond was set at $1 million.
Stanton remained on the scene until authorities arrived at the Murrell Meadows Drive apartment where the incident happened. A neighbor called 911, but Stanton also spoke to dispatchers and told them the shooting was an accident.
“I didn’t think the gun was loaded and I was putting it away and it accidentally went off,” Stanton told the dispatcher.
Stanton and Avril had apparently been dating.
District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn said he couldn’t comment on the specifics of what led his office to seek an increased charge against Stanton.
“(New) evidence came out and we were of the opinion that it should be upgraded to first degree,” Dunn said.
Last year, defense attorney Joe Baker asked General sessions Court Judge Jeff Rader to reduce the charges against Stanton, maintaining that the shooting was an accident.
During a preliminary hearing for Stanton, Detective Matthew Cubberley said Stanton admitted the gun went off when he was holding it. Cubberley said Stanton told him Avril asked him to move the handgun, and that he turned abruptly back toward her while holding the gun with his finger on the trigger, and it went off.
While Staton was concerned about Avril at the scene, he also told authorities he didn’t know what had happened to the handgun. It was found in a closet in the apartment.
jfarrell@themountainpress.com
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 3 Feb 2012.
‘Accident’ or not? Potential witness claims Avril said shooting was not intentional
by JEFF FARRELL
Jacob Stanton looks over at his attorney Joe Baker during a motion to exclude testimony about the gun allegedly used in the death of Leah Avril, for which he is on trial.
Judge Rex Henry Ogle holds a side bar with defense attorney Joe Baker and Assistant District Attorney Barry Williams during the motion hearing.
SEVIERVILLE — The jury in Jacob Stanton’s first-degree murder trial will likely hear Leah Avril’s alleged last words to an emergency medical technician, along with testimony from other witnesses stating it didn’t take place as the EMT recalls.
Judge Rex Henry Ogle said Thursday that he would allow EMT Brian Albano to testify about the final moments in the life of Stanton’s 18-year-old girlfriend, who died after suffering a gunshot wound Nov. 17, 2009, while alone with Stanton at a Murrell Meadows apartment.
Albano, reviewing notes he wrote down at the time of the accident, said Thursday that while he was examining Avril she said the word “accident,” and that he then asked her who had caused her wounds and she indicted it was Stanton.
Assistant District Attorney Barry Williams, who is prosecuting the case, said he would call other witnesses who were in the room that day who would contradict Albano’s testimony. Which witnesses to believe will be a matter for the jury to decide.
Thursday’s hearing was set for Ogle to review several motions, including one filed by Williams questioning whether Avril’s last words constituted a “dying declaration,” which would allow Albano and others to testify as to what they heard her say. Under state law, a murder victim’s final words can be admitted into the trial of their alleged killer if the victim knew he or she was dying.
Albano said Avril was in shock, but was lucid when she spoke to him.
While Williams argued there was no testimony that Avril knew she was about to die, Ogle acknowledged it could reasonably be assumed that she understood her predicament after suffering a gunshot wound to the chest.
Although Albano’s testimony indicates Stanton accidentally pulled the trigger, defense attorney Joe Baker was coy about whether he was going to make that his sole argument against the prosecution’s version of events.
“If my client discharged the weapon, it was an accident,” he said. “I would stipulate that he and Leah were the only ones in the room (at the time of the shooting).”
Stanton was living in the apartment, officials said Thursday; his brother had signed the lease and also lived there.
Baker argued that Ogle should exclude testimony from witnesses saying the firearm that killed Avril had been hidden in Stanton’s closet before sheriff’s deputies arrived, saying that there had been other people in the apartment between the shooting and the arrival of deputies.
“It’s the state’s position it was hidden,” Williams said, later adding, “It’s the murder weapon. It was in Jacob Stanton’s closet.”
Ogle ruled that testimony could be part of the state’s case, but ruled that for now the state can’t use pictures pulled from Avril’s Myspace account showing Stanton brandishing other firearms. Those images don’t relate to the prosecution’s case that Stanton intentionally decided to kill Avril, whose friends claim she was ending their relationship, the judge said.
But if the defense attempts to present the shooting as an accident, the prosecution could use those pictures and similar evidence to show Stanton is familiar with guns, he noted.
“All this stuff is sitting there, waiting to come in if the door is opened,” Ogle said.
Baker acknowledged that Stanton had been around firearms, and that he didn’t always exercise reasonable caution while carrying them. “My client was, for lack of a better term, stupid and reckless in handing firearms,” he said.
In a 911 call after the accident, Stanton admitted to shooting Avril but told dispatchers it was an accident.
While the defense will be able to present evidence that accidental weapon discharges occur, it won’t be able to cite a recent incident involving a Sevier County Sheriffs deputy whose gun discharged into a pack of cold cuts at a deli last year.
“We won’t be trying the Caton’s Chapel bologna case,” the judge said.
Ogle also urged the families of the victim and defendant to behave with restraint around each other.
As court started, he reminded them not to wear buttons or shirts related to the case while in court — Avril’s family and friends have worn shirts at some victims’ rights events with her image on them.
He also reminded them to remain calm after an apparent incident outside the courtroom as the morning continued. While officials didn’t describe the incident, attorneys asked the judge to issue a restraining order preventing the families from being in contact with each other.
Instead, Ogle asked them to show proper decorum around each other so that they could all attend the trial, which is currently set for Feb. 28.
“We must conduct the trail in such a way as to avoid any potential influence on a jury member,” Ogle said. While he wants both families to be able to attend, he said he would throw people out of court if they disrupted the proceedings.
jfarrell@themountainpress.com
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