In the spring of 2017, a dispute simmering between two men connected by marriage reached a tragic and fatal conclusion in a public space. On the afternoon of April 28, 2017, 23-year-old Marshall Allen Pinsley, a male from Blaine, Tennessee, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Walmart on Tanner Lane in Clinton, Tennessee. The incident stemmed from an ongoing disagreement over child visitation between Pinsley and Robert Keith Myers, the ex-husband of Pinsley's wife.
The fatal
encounter was preceded by a chance meeting on a nearby road. Following this, Pinsley followed Myers' vehicle into the bustling Walmart parking lot. There, Pinsley exited his car and approached the driver's side of Myers' vehicle. It was at this point that Myers discharged a handgun, striking Pinsley with a single, fatal shot. Emergency services were called to the scene around 1:15 p.m., but Pinsley was pronounced dead at the location, in front of the store's lawn and garden entrance.
The investigation into the shooting was handled by the Clinton Police Department, who conducted numerous witness interviews and reviewed surveillance footage from the area. Robert Keith Myers was identified as the shooter and was subsequently arrested and indicted by a grand jury in May 2017. The legal proceedings that followed brought to light another violent crime committed by Myers just a few months prior to the shooting.
In August 2018, 33-year-old Robert Keith Myers appeared in Anderson County Criminal Court and pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Marshall Pinsley. In a related case, he also pleaded guilty to the attempted second-degree murder and kidnapping of a woman named Brandy Moneymaker, whom he had severely beaten, shot at, and left for dead in a remote area in February 2017. For the murder of Pinsley, Myers received a 15-year sentence. This was to be served consecutively with a 12-year sentence for the crimes against Moneymaker, resulting in an effective 27-year prison sentence without the possibility of parole. The family of Marshall Pinsley was present in court and supported the plea agreement.
