Longtime Animal Shelter Dweller “Dylan” Needs a Home

March 16, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Dylan has been living at the DeKalb Animal Shelter for a long time. In fact, he has been there longer than any other pet. And while Dylan is welcome there, he needs a forever home.

Will you be that loving, caring family who gives him such a home?

You can adopt Dylan this week. He is the WJLE/DeKalb Animal Shelter featured “Pet of the Week”

“Dylan is our longest shelter resident. He has been with us eight months. He is a three-year-old Shepherd mix. Dylan is really good on a leash. He behaves well and loves to play. He is very dominant, so he needs to be the only dog in the household but if you have another dog we are open to having a meet and greet with them. He is great with people especially kids. Dylan is also sponsored by our “friends of “ organization so his adoption fee has been reduced to $100. He is neutered and is up to date on all his vaccinations. Dylan is micro-chipped and ready to go,” said Shelter Director Emmaly Bennett.

“ If you are interested in adopting Dylan go to our website at https://www.dekalbanimalsheltertn.com/ and fill out an adoption application and we will call you to set up a time for you to come in and meet him,” said Bennett.

The shelter is now open Monday-Friday from 8 to 4 and Saturday from 8 to 12 on Transfer Station Road behind Tenneco Automotive.

March 15, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

A 54-year-old DeKalb County man serving a life sentence for first degree murder in the kidnapping and brutal killing of two men in 1995 will be up for parole next month.

The hearing for James Christopher Tatrow, convicted in the murders of John Harry and Roger Zammit, will be held at the Northwest Correctional Complex (NWCX) in Lake County at Tiptonville, Tennessee where Tatrow is incarcerated. Tatrow has spent half of his life behind bars because of the crimes.

This will be Tatrow’s second appearance before members of the Tennessee Board of Parole.

“At Tatrow’s initial parole hearing on Oct. 3, 2019, the Board voted to decline parole at the time and recommended a review hearing to be scheduled in April 2022. In Mr. Tatrow’s particular case, there needs to be four concurring votes by the Board members to reach a final decision,” said Dustin Krugel, Communications Director for the Tennessee Board of Parole.

(Click the link below to read details about the Chris Tatrow case in this 1998 Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ruling)

CHRIS TATROW STORY

The story centers around Tatrow, who was a rodeo cowboy, college student and family man until he started abusing drugs after a serious back injury.

In January 1995 Tatrow’s trailer home in the Belk Community of DeKalb County became a hangout house where friends and acquaintances of Tatrow came and went.

The beginning of the nightmare was when Tatrow returned home from a trip to Texas to find that his trailer had been robbed. Prize belt buckles won in rodeos, a Navajo blanket that belonged to a close friend, an antique knife collection, a coin purse inherited from his great-grandfather, a toolbox and several guns were reported stolen to the sheriff’s department but having heard rumors that Roger Zammit and John Harry were responsible for the theft, Tatrow allegedly decided to take matters into his own hands. Along with several accomplices, Tatrow kidnapped Harry and Zammit and brought them to his home where they were tortured and beaten for several days before being murdered. According to court documents, Zammit, gored and bloody, along with Harry, was made to kneel in a bathtub. A plastic bag was placed around Zammit’s head and a cord around his neck. Tatrow, the former Rodeo star, had his knee in Zammit’s back and yanked the cord, and then took a heavy-duty flashlight and mercilessly beat him. After Zammit died, Harry was marched outside where he was shot in the head and died. Tatrow and his accomplices then wrapped the bodies of Zammit and Harry in carpet and woven wire fencing and took them to Hurricane Bridge on Cookeville Highway where they were dumped from the bridge in the lake.

After Zammit and Harry were reported missing an investigation led to the discovery of the bodies and the arrest of Tatrow and his accomplices. Because of the pre-trial publicity, the trial court ordered that the case against Tatrow be tried in Cumberland County rather than DeKalb County. Other co-defendants in the case were sentenced after the Tatrow trial. While Tatrow admitted that he was involved in the kidnappings and that he killed the victims, he contended that because he was suffering from a drug-induced psychosis, he was unable to formulate the requisite knowledge of wrongdoing at the time the crimes occurred. The state argued that voluntary intoxication could not be used to negate the element of recklessness and that the evidence in the record demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that Tatrow knowingly kidnapped and then recklessly murdered the victims.

At the conclusion of the two-week trial in 1996, the jury convicted Tatrow of two counts of felony murder and two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping in the deaths of Zammit and Harry. Tatrow was also convicted of two counts of premeditated and deliberate murder of the same victims, but the trial court set aside those verdicts as the thirteenth juror. In the sentencing phase, the jury declined to impose the death penalty or life without parole and sentenced Tatrow to serve life sentences with the possibility of parole. At the conclusion of a sentencing hearing, the trial court judge ordered Tatrow to serve two consecutive life sentences concurrently with sentences of 22 years for the kidnapping convictions. Tatrow later challenged the validity of the convictions and the propriety of consecutive sentencing.

Upon a review of the record and the law, The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in 1998 affirmed Tatrow’s convictions but vacated the order to run the two life sentences consecutively.

March 15, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The ballots for the May 3 DeKalb County Primaries have been released by the DeKalb County Election Commission office.

A total of 57 candidates are listed between the two primary ballots with 26 of those seeking the party nomination for the seven county commission districts.

(View sample ballots at links below)

Democrat Primary Sample Ballot

Republican Primary Sample Ballot

“Voters are reminded these are primary elections and they can only vote in one of the elections,” said Dennis Stanley Administrator of Elections. “Under state law, a voter cannot vote in two primaries which are held at the same time, such as is the case on May 3rd.”

Stanley encouraged voters to study the ballots and make their decision which primary they wish to vote in before heading to the polls, either for early voting or election day.

(DeKalb County Administrator of Elections Dennis Stanley in conjunction with WJLE has produced a short video with important information of which voters should be aware for the May 3 DeKalb County Democratic and Republican Primaries. Stanley said the purpose of the video is to answer questions that voters may have to better prepare them for election day. The following is a summary of the information shared by Stanley in the vide):

“A voter must decide which candidate, which office or which party is more important to them and then make a selection,” he said.

Sample ballots will also be posted on the election commission website at www.dekalbelections.com and will be available at each voting location to assist the voters with their decision.

Democrat Primary Sample Ballot

Republican Primary Sample Ballot

Meanwhile, the election commission has set the early voting hours for the May primaries

Early voting begins April 13 and runs through April 28 and will be held at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Smithville and limited hours at the Fairgrounds in Alexandria.

Early voting hours in Smithville are as follows: Mondays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Wednesdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Thursdays 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to Noon.

Early voting hours in Alexandria will be Tuesday April 19th from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Monday April 25 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

All properly registered voters can vote early at either location. Early voting will not be held on Good Friday.

“We’re pleased to be able to offer limited early voting in Alexandria this election,” Stanley said. “And remember, just like Smithville, anyone in the county can vote early in Alexandria as well.”

Voters are also reminded to keep their address up to date with the election office to avoid delays when they come to vote.

“During the petition process we noticed several voters signed a candidate’s petition with an address different than what we had on file,” Stanley said. “In order to avoid delays or possibly a trip to another voting site on election day, voters need to make sure their current address is the same address the election office has on file.”

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