On a summer evening in Somerville, Tennessee, the life of 37-year-old Nakita Anderson was tragically cut short. On June 24, 2022, law enforcement and emergency services responded to a chaotic scene on South Somerville Street where a vehicle had crashed into a house and burst into flames. After the fire was extinguished, a grim discovery was made inside the charred remains of the car.
Nakita Anderson and another individual, Darius Springfield, were found deceased within the vehicle. It was soon determined that their deaths were not a result of the crash or the subsequent fire. Both Anderson and Springfield had sustained gunshot wounds, turning a fiery crash investigation into a double homicide case. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was called in to assist the Somerville Police Department in unraveling the events that led to the two deaths.
The investigation into the murders of Nakita Anderson and Darius Springfield led authorities to identify two suspects. Over a year after the incident, in July 2023, a Fayette County Grand Jury returned indictments against Kentavious Taylor and Brandon Auston. The two men were charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, vandalism, and felony reckless endangerment. Following the indictments, both Taylor and Auston were arrested and booked into the Fayette County Jail, each held on a $500,000 bond.
