A Nashville jury convicted 28-year-old Isaiah Berkley of First-Degree Premeditated Murder for the 10-year-old cold case death of 40-year-old David Huddleston, whom prosecutors say was killed during a robbery arranged by the victim’s sister. The conviction carries an automatic sentence of life imprisonment. David Huddleston was shot next to his wife on their 300-acre farm in northwest Nashville in January of 2015.
Nashville Deputy District Attorney Amy Hunter said a fallout over inheritance money led Huddleston’s sister to arrange for him to be robbed. Prosecutors argued the sister contacted Berkley, the son of one of her friends. Berkley then recruited Antonio Martin and Jaimerio Askew to carry out the robbery, according to prosecutors. The robbery turned deadly, however, after one of the men swung open a door to the car Huddleston and his wife Talisha Huddleston were sitting in.
Much of the prosecution’s case from the Nashville DA’s office relied on testimony from Trenton Raybon, who said Berkley confessed the crime to him while they were in jail together for unrelated offenses. The case was in the Metro Nashville Police Department’s cold case unit when Raybon came forward in 2016, Hunter said.
Martin and Askew will be tried separately from Berkley.