David Richard Howard IV was a 28-year-old Caucasian man from Corryton, Tennessee, whose life ended in a shooting on December 1, 2021. At approximately 7:25 that morning, Knox County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies, Major Crimes detectives and forensic personnel were called to the 5900 block of Jones Road in North Knox County. Deputies found Howard suffering from a gunshot wound at the scene, and emergency medical personnel pronounced him dead.
Authorities publicly identified him the following day and said early in the investigation that they had no reason to believe the shooting was a random act of violence.
Away from the criminal investigation, Howard’s obituary described the personal loss left behind. His daughter, Hayden, was portrayed as the center of his life, and relatives remembered Howard as hardworking and as someone who tried to protect, encourage and provide for the people around him. His surviving family included his daughter, his father David Richard “Rick” Howard III, his mother and stepfather Lissie and Bruce Welch, his sister Amber, his brothers Aaron and Jonathon, his grandfather Roland Lane, and numerous extended relatives. Family and friends gathered for a celebration of his life on December 6, followed by burial at Roseberry Cemetery in Mascot on December 7.
The homicide investigation moved quickly. On December 2, while detectives were still working the case, Jacklyn Rachelle Steele of Knoxville was arrested on charges that the sheriff’s office specifically said were unrelated to Howard’s homicide. Those charges involved the sale or delivery of heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and marijuana, along with possession of a weapon during the commission of a dangerous felony. Her arrest was therefore part of the activity surrounding the investigation but was not announced as a murder charge against her.
By December 4, Knox County Major Crimes detectives announced the first two homicide arrests. Jessica Leann Hamlet and Joseph Adam Sparks were taken into custody and each charged with first-degree murder in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of another crime. The arrests came only three days after Howard was found shot. During the investigation, officers also arrested Matthew Garcia on outstanding warrants for failure to appear, unlawful drug-paraphernalia-related activity and evading arrest. Those warrants were not presented by investigators as homicide charges against Garcia. Sheriff Tom Spangler credited the different investigative units with developing the murder charges against Hamlet and Sparks within days of the killing.
The case expanded months later. In August 2022, court documents obtained by WVLT showed that Jason Flenniken had been indicted on a felony-murder charge in connection with Howard’s death, making him the third person publicly charged in the homicide. The charging documents supplied an important detail about the prosecution’s theory of the crime: authorities alleged that Flenniken, Hamlet and Sparks killed Howard during the commission or attempted commission of a burglary. That allegation placed the fatal shooting within an alleged burglary and provided the basis for a felony-murder prosecution. The publicly available material does not, however, establish guilt by itself or conclusively identify from the cited charging information which defendant fired the fatal shot.
Flenniken’s murder prosecution remained active years after the killing. As of August 2026, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office inmate system listed him as having been rebooked on July 29, 2026, on the felony-murder charge. The listing showed a $250,000 appearance bond, a federal detainer, and a Division 3 trial scheduled for January 19, 2027. Because that trial date remained in the future, the sheriff’s record did not reflect a conviction in Howard’s murder case at that point.
The current Knox County inmate listings reviewed did not show Hamlet or Sparks among the presently listed inmates under their surnames, but absence from a current jail roster does not establish whether a case was dismissed, resolved by plea, transferred, resulted in release, or reached some other disposition. The reliable online reporting and official records located for this synopsis do not establish a final murder conviction or acquittal for either Hamlet or Sparks. What the available record does establish is that Howard’s death prompted first-degree murder charges against Hamlet and Sparks within days, a later felony-murder indictment against Flenniken based on an alleged burglary, and a prosecution against Flenniken that was still moving toward trial more than four years after Howard was killed.
