A Timeline of Events

Criminal cases have a lot of moving pieces, and a timeline helps visualize what was happening when. Come back for updates as the story unfolds.

December 1991

⚪ Christmastime - Gary Sutton and Tommy's Griffin's older brother, Bill, get in a fight. While Gary was charged, Tommy testified against Bill, and a grand jury declined to indict Gary.

January 1992

⚪ January 2 - Somebody shoots into five houses along Douglas Dam Road in Kodak with a 12-gauge Winchester shotgun.

⚪ January 9 - Gary Sutton is arrested and charged with seven counts of reckless endangerment with a firearm after an investigation by the Sevier County Sheriff's Department.

⚪ January 17 - Bobby C. Floyd, Jimmie E. Gates, and Greg Anawalt are arrested and charged in connection with cocaine sales in Blount County, Tennessee.

February 1992

⚪ February 7 - Gary is due in court for the reckless endangerment charges; court is continued because the prosecution says they could not locate the passengers in Gary's vehicle that night: Carolyn Weaver and one of Gary's half brothers.

⚪ February 10 - Boyd Branum, Connie Branum's husband, calls 911 to report her suicide attempt. She is admitted to Lakeshore Mental Health Institute in Knoxville.

⚪ February 14 - Connie is discharged from Lakeshore.

February 21

⚪ 9:00 AM - Gary appears in court in Sevier County for the reckless endangerment charge. The judge drops the charges because the prosecution was still unable to produce the witnesses.

⚪ 10:00 AM - The approximate time Gary arrives at Tommy's home on Bluff ⚪ Heights Road. Gary, Tommy, and James Dellinger end up going for breakfast and riding around before ending up at Howie's Hideaway in Maryville in the early afternoon.

⚪ 4:00 PM - Linda Dellinger, James's wife, arrives at their Bluff Heights home after work.

⚪ 5:26 PM - Sunset.

At some point after sunset, Gary, James and Tommy left the Howie's. Gary testified that it was still light out. A server at Howie's said it was closer to 7 when they left.

After leaving Howie's, the men go to a nearby gas station. Tommy leaves with a dark-haired woman. James and Gary leave to head home. This is disputed in the state's timeline. Instead, the state says Gary, James, and Tommy got into a fight on Alcoa Highway. The fight was called in by Cynthia and Kenneth Walker via radio; a third witness saw a shirtless man on the side of the road as she drove north, but did not mention a vehicle

⚪ 7:11 PM - Blount County dispatcher Sandra Hicks sends Alcoa officers Drew Roberts and Steve Brooks to the intersection of Alcoa Highway and Hunt Road for a fight in progress. The vehicle involved was a black Camaro, according to the dispatch notes. Brooks initiates a traffic stop on a car full of young women after they turned across the highway median.

⚪ 7:13 PM -The Alcoa police officers arrive on scene.

⚪ 7:15 PM - APD Officer Drew Roberts encounters a scraped up Tommy Griffin in the bed of a pickup truck. At the same time, Officer Steven Brooks is writing a ticket for improper lane usage.

⚪ 7:27 PM - Tommy is placed under arrest for public intoxication.

Between 7:30 and 7:45 PM, the woman who saw the shirtless man heads back south and no longer sees the shirtless man, but does see an "older model" Camaro pulled over and a man in the grass as if he was looking for something.

⚪ 7:30 PM - James and Gary arrive at the home of Gary's brother, Jimmy. They swap Gary's Chevy Camaro for Jimmy's white pickup and head on to James's house. Carolyn Weaver, Gary's girlfriend, was waiting at Jimmy's house and goes with them.

⚪ 7:35 PM - Tommy and ACP Officer Drew Roberts arrive at the Blount County Jail.

⚪ 7:40 PM - Blount County Deputy Ron Herrin books Tommy into the jail.

⚪ 8:00 PM - This is the approximate time that Gary, James, and Carolyn arrived back at James and Linda Dellinger's home.

⚪ 8:30 PM - This is the approximate time that Ron Herrin said James Dellinger and "another man" came into the jail looking for Tommy.

⚪ 9:02 PM - Bluff Heights resident Linda Henry calls 911 to report that Tommy's trailer was on fire.

⚪ 9:03 PM - Another Bluff Heights resident, Devon Mayes, called 911 to report that Tommy's trailer was on fire.

⚪ 9:06 PM - One of Connie's sisters, who was at their mother's home, got word about the fire and made a third 911 call.

⚪ 9:09 PM - The fourth and final 911 call about the fire is called in from Connie and Boyd Branum's home. Connie's daughter, Jennifer, made the call.

⚪ 9:17 PM - The first unit from Sevierville Fire Department arrived on the scene at Tommy's trailer.

⚪ 9:19 PM - At Connie Branum's request, Linda Dellinger calls Blount Memorial Hospital to see if Tommy was there since he wasn't home. He wasn't at the hospital.

⚪ 9:27 PM - Linda or James Dellinger call Blount County Dispatch looking for Tommy.

⚪ 9:30 PM - Linda or James Dellinger calls the Blount County Jail and find that Tommy had been arrested a couple hours prior.

⚪ 9:45 PM - Sometime between 9:45 and 10:45, James Dellinger and Gary Sutton leave Bluff Heights to go bail Tommy out of jail in Linda's 1988 Oldsmobile.

⚪ 10:30 PM - The final fire truck left the holler after extinguishing Tommy's trailer.

⚪ 11:25 PM - Tommy is Bonded out of the Blount County jail. He doesn't believe James and Gary when they tell him his trailer burned, and he leaves with the dark haired woman from earlier in the evening. She was waiting outside the jail for Tommy.

⚪ 11:55 PM - Heritage High School student Jason McDonald writes in his journal, "P.S. I just heard two or three gunshots down the hill. It is now 11:55 by my clock, P.M.”

February 22

⚪ Midnight - James and Gary return to Bluff Heights Road after bailing Tommy out of jail, according to James's wife, Linda. James, Gary, Linda, and Carolyn Weaver all head down to Pigeon Forge for a meal at the Huddle House

⚪ 1:18 AM - Connie Branam calls the Blount County Jail

⚪ 3:00 AM - James, Linda, Gary, and Carolyn are back at the Dellinger home and in bed. Linda testified one of Connie's uncles knocked on the door at this time.

⚪ 3:54 AM - Connie calls the Blount County Jail again.

⚪7:30 AM - Bluff Heights neighbor Elaine Mayes testified that she saw Connie leaning on a tree and staring at the remains of Tommy's burned trailer.

⚪ 12:56 PM - Connie calls the Blount County Jail again.

⚪ 2:30 PM - Connie calls Elaine Mayes to ask if she can watch her two youngest children while she goes down to the jail to ask about Tommy. Elaine agrees, and Connie leaves.