The Tennessean – October 30, 2025 – If current trends hold, Nashville could end up with its lowest homicide rate in 60 years.

The robbery rate could hit its lowest mark since 1972.

These are just a couple of the public safety milestones Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell flagged earlier in October. It’s not new messaging for O’Connell, who over the past several months has highlighted Nashville’s declining violent crime rates, which he said have dropped across the board in all tracked categories on a year-over-year basis.

One more indicator of Nashville’s positive trajectory: O’Connell said the city didn’t see a single homicide in September, a feat he said may be a first in modern memory.

“We’re seeing historically low moments of these particular categories of crime, and it’s happening at a time where we’re making strategic investments,” O’Connell said.

Here’s how, and what comes next as O’Connell aims to continue the trend in 2026.

O’Connell points to several strategies that could explain Nashville’s current moment in public safety.

One of them is bringing on new Metro Nashville Police Department officers, 250 of them since O’Connell took office in 2023. Then there’s the dedicated public transit security division that launched earlier this year, expanded safety resources that have rolled out at Nashville’s public schools and MNPD’s new Southeast Precinct that will soon open in Antioch.

“All of this has happened while we’ve made strategic improvements in response times, letting reporting frameworks change, using 311 more effectively, changing response times at our Department of Emergency Communications,” O’Connell said. “Across the board, we’re very excited to see what we want.”

The list doesn’t end there. O’Connell also pointed to Nashville’s new Office of Youth Safety and the continued growth of mental health co-response initiatives like MNPD’s Partners in Care program and the Nashville Fire Department’s Responders Engaged and Committed to Health program, both of which have expanded in the past year or so.

That progress comes at a time when progressive-led cities from coast to coast are experiencing heightened scrutiny from state and federal lawmakers, with crime the impetus for the National Guard’s presence just over three hours away in Memphis.

Emphasizing Nashville’s progress to state and federal partners has been a focus this year, O’Connell said. But those conversations aren’t meant to imply that there’s not still more to accomplish.

“I also don’t want to paint it as a picture that’s rosier than it is,” O’Connell said. “We still know we have work to do. We still know there’s progress to continue putting down pressure on crime. We still know that we do want to have police presence be understood and felt in communities that it makes sense.”

“We want to continue to look at meaningful ways to reduce gun violence,” O’Connell said. “Within that, we’ve also seen reductions in non-lethal gun violence incidents, so we want to continue that pressure.”

That means looking at expanding gun violence intervention measures, O’Connell said, and improving on the Office of Family Safety’s efforts to standardize the city’s firearms dispossession standards for cases like domestic violence.

O’Connell said increased capacity in the city’s budget should boost efforts to expand the staff at the Office of Youth Safety, and O’Connell’s staff is in the middle of reviewing applications for a director of violence prevention and crime prevention in the mayor’s office.

Part of the work lies in illustrating Nashville’s progress to community members who may otherwise not be aware of it, or who personally feel less safe because they’ve been the victim of a crime directly. O’Connell said it’s just as important to highlight resources like the Office of Family Safety’s and MNPD’s family intervention program.

“I know this from firsthand experience — anyone who becomes a victim of a crime, there is no easy way back to feeling safe,” O’Connell said. “If you have seen break-ins in your neighborhood, if you have had a property crime occur, if you have been a victim of a robbery, those are the points of people (feeling) unsafe. So I also want people to understand the resources we have for victims of crime.”

August 15, 2025 – A Davidson County jury found 60-year-old Roger McElroy GUILTY of killing a fellow driver and injuring a Metro Police officer in a horrific 3-vehicle crash that occurred in the Joelton area of North Nashville in 2020.  The 60-year-old McElroy admitted he smoked marijuana and took prescription medication before the high-speed crash that killed Steven Toth and injured MNPD officer Benjamin Cantrell.

Assistant District Attorney and Vehicular Crimes Team Leader, General Matt Gilbert played video during the trial from officer Cantrell’s dash cam showing McElroy’s speeding red pick-up blow through a stop sign at the intersection of Clarksville Pike and Bernard Road at a high rate of speed, killing the 66-year-old Toth and injuring officer Cantrell, who was on his way home from his police shift.   General Gilbert stated that it’s one of the first times the combination of prescription medication and marijuana have resulted in a fatal crash and an eventual conviction at a jury trial.  At the time of the crash, McElroy had two previous convictions for driving under the influence.

 

After 10 years of waiting, justice is awarded to a young rape victim.

Congratulations to Assistant District Attorneys Lauren Hogan and Macy Pesavento, who secured a Guilty conviction on July 15th, 2025, against defendant Leopold Mpawinayo on the Class A Felony charge of Rape of a Child.    The victim was only 12 years old in 2015 when Mpawinayo picked up the victim, who was a stranger to him, and raped her.   Although the victim reported the crime immediately, the DNA didn’t hit CODIS (the national DNA crime database) until five years later.  Mpawinayo was then connected to this case, and several other crimes.

Prosecutors praised Crimes Against Children Detective Rob Carrigan, who was able to locate the victim almost 10 years after the crime.  Victim Witness Coordinators Alex Ondrus and Hannah Estes provided support to the victim, who was finally able to get Justice after years of waiting and wondering if her attacker would ever be held accountable.

In the end, it only took the jury 30 minutes to find Mpawinayo Guilty of Rape of a Child, which is a mandatory Range 2 offense, carrying prison time of 25 to 40 years at 100%.  His sentencing will be September 4^th.

 

 

A Davidson County jury found 26-year-old Deandre Conway Guilty Thursday night (June 26, 2025) on all eleven counts he faced in the October, 2022 deaths of a Nashville man and Cheatham County teenager.  24-year-old Terry Farmer was shot to death during an altercation with Conway at a Madison area apartment complex.  Following the shooting, Conway fled the scene in a Chevrolet pickup, and plowed into a Toyota Rav 4, killing 17-year-old Landen Guye.  Several other young people in the Toyota were also injured in the crash.  Conway fled from the crash scene on foot and was later arrested by Metro Police TITANS detectives in the Hendersonville area.  During the emotional 4-day trial, prosecutors called more than two dozen witnesses, many of them family members of the two individuals who were killed.  After just 3 hours of deliberations, Conway was found guilty of charges ranging from Second Degree Murder and Reckless Vehicular Homicide to multiple counts of Reckless Aggravated Assault.  If sentenced to serve all of his time consecutively (back-to-back), Conway could spend more than 60 years behind bars.  Sentencing will be August 20th in front of Criminal Court Judge Mark Fishburn.

Deandre Conway                                        Terry Farmer                                         Landen Guye                                              Photos from the crash scene 10/2022

A Davidson County jury found 30-year-old Ryan McCann guilty this week of assaulting and intimidating a man of Jewish ancestry while in a downtown Nashville parking lot in July of 2024.  McCann, a self-proclaimed antisemitic and white supremacist, was convicted of Assault Resulting in Bodily Injury, along with Civil Rights Intimidation for the attack.  McCann was in Nashville with the hate group, Goyim Defense League, as they marched through Nashville last summer.

It took the jury only three hours to convict the Canadian born McCann, who faces up to 13 years in prison for the two guilty convictions.  In addition, McCann faces additional charges for an altercation with another man that took place along Broadway.

Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier stated in court that this is believed to be the first trial of its kind in Tennessee for a Civil Rights Intimidation violation.  Jewish leaders from across Nashville and the state praised the Metro Nashville Police department, as well as the District Attorney’s prosecution team.  Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk says the prosecution and convictions prove that violence, hate, and intimidation will not be tolerated in Nashville.

Ryan McCann                               Instagram post of attack

The Nashville District Attorney’s office Criminal Court Division III Team Leader Megan King and Assistant District Attorney Gracie Moore secured a GUILTY VERDICT in State v. Ronnie Phillips this past week.

70-year-old Ronnie Phillips was found guilty of First-Degree Premeditated Murder in the murder of victim Christine Estok, along with Especially Aggravated Kidnapping and Aggravated Assault against Phillips’ girlfriend, Pascha Baskette.

Facts of the case:   On July 19, 2022, the defendant, 70-year-old Ronnie Phillips, was spending the day with his girlfriend (31-year-old Pascha Baskette) and her aunt (Christine Estok).  They all spent the night at the defendant’s home in Donelson, planning to hang out the next day.  Pascha and Phillips went to the bedroom leaving Christine sleeping on a den sofa.   When Pascha woke up the next morning, she found her aunt, Christine Estok, dead on the sofa with a gunshot wound to the head.   Phillips claimed he killed Christine because someone named “Pa” called and told him that Christine was trying to set Pascha up with another man.   Then, holding a gun and a taser, he told Pascha he was going to kill her.  Pascha begged for her life.    Phillips finally agreed to contact police only if they told them Christine committed suicide.   Phillips staged the scene prior to police and paramedics arriving, but once authorities arrived, Pascha told them what really happened.

Based upon all the proof, prosecutors believe and argued that the defendant shot Christine while she was sleeping, then held his girlfriend Pascha against her will, threatening her with a gun and a taser.

The jury agreed, finding Phillips Guilty of all charges in just one hour of deliberations.  The guilty verdict carries an automatic life sentence.

Convicted Killer Ronnie Phillips                          Victim Christine Estok

On Wednesday, May 14^th, a Davidson County Criminal Court Jury handed down two GUILTY verdicts against 31-year-old James Ritenour, including First Degree Premeditated Murder, which carries an automatic life sentence.  Ritenour was found guilty of killing 29-year-old Alexis Douglas and wounding her 29-year-old boyfriend, Gene Fernandez in Douglas’ Donelson apartment in December of 2020 in a fit of jealous rage.

The second guilty verdict was for Premeditated Attempted First Degree Murder for the shooting of Fernandez.  Sentencing on that conviction will be in August.

Gene Fernandez took the stand in the trial, pointing out the killer in Judge Jennifer Smith’s Division IV courtroom.   Fernandez and his family, along with the relatives of Alexis Douglas were overcome with emotion following the verdict, hugging the DA’s prosecution team, lead by Assistant District Attorneys Debbie Housel and Elizabeth Huertas, as well as Victim Witness Coordinator Susan Tucker Smith.

Ritenour will begin serving his life sentence immediately.

 

 

72-year-old Defendant Tyrone Harris was found Guilty of Second-Degree Murder in the November 7, 2023, shooting death of 60-year-old Bruce Woodland.

This conviction came only after the hard work and tenacity of Assistant District Attorney Kevin Kennedy, serving as First Chair in his first ever Murder Trial as either as First or Second Chair.

Division I Team Leader General Wesley King (Second Chair) says this case was a 2023 1st degree murder charge, but later dismissed at the General Sessions level as the proof was insufficient. There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, however witnesses and phone records placed Harris at the property at the time of the shooting.

When General Kennedy later inherited the case, he began looking into it deeper.  General Kennedy says thanks to the efforts of Metro Police Detective Kyle Eicholtz, more evidence was obtained and the case was able to move forward as a Direct Presentment to the Grand Jury.  General King said:  ‘Kevin on his own corralled numerous civilian witnesses who did not want to be involved, but he convinced them to do the right thing, which most of them ended up doing.  He not only navigated numerous pre-trial problems with the case, but dealt with many that arose during trial, including the star witness being incarcerated and unavailable to testify given his nude status in the DCSO safe room.  Kevin did all of it on his own.’

The Defendant’s final offer before trial was essentially probation only.  Instead, General Kennedy offered for him to plead open to voluntary manslaughter after day 1 of the trial and that was turned down.

The trial proved a challenge, as the state’s star witness became unavailable and a couple other witnesses either didn’t show or recanted.

But, as Team Leader Wesley King says, General Kennedy never flinched:  ‘Anyone would be expected to show nerves in their first trial, especially a murder, but you couldn’t tell with Kevin.  He was composed, prepared, and very persuasive in his closing argument.  Given the issues in the case, we knew that a voluntary manslaughter verdict would be a favorable verdict.  The jury found the Defendant guilty of Second-Degree Murder, which exceeded our expectations and which brought closure for the family, including Mr. Woodland’s daughter who was in the Courtroom when the verdict was read.  Kevin was excellent in his first trial, receiving praise from the victim’s family, the Court staff, and the defense attorney.’

ADA Kevin Kennedy gives high praise to the entire Division 1 Team, saying, ‘We relied a lot on jail calls. Those exhibits were all put together by Lili and Candice who put tons of work into that. Lili also helped a lot with the technology set up in general. She is the best.  Most of all, Wesley was incredible in how he helped me through preparing for the trial, teaching me things I needed to know, strategizing with me, answering my endless questions, etc. etc. Safe to say, he was way more than a second chair on the case.  Also my old DV team friends, especially Bethany Wohlford and Kate Snyder, were super amazing in letting me bounce ideas off them for months and supporting me on it all.’ 

 In the end, the victim’s family was extremely happy with the verdict.   Great job by Generals Kennedy and King, the entire Division I Team, and other members of our staff!

Defendant Tyrone Harris                                      Victim Bruce Woodland

Division IV Criminal Court Team Leader General Brian Ewald and Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Huertas secured a Guilty Conviction this week in the trial 73-year-old Christine Ann Roberts.   It took the jury two hours to find Roberts guilty of First-Degree Premediated Murder for the July 2023 murder of her husband, Thomas Roberts.

Roberts, a well-known and well-respected lighting technician in the music industry, was shot to death on the front porch of the couple’s East Nashville home following an alleged argument with his wife.   Domestic Violence Victim Witness Coordinator Susan Tucker-Smith did an amazing job supporting the family, many of whom traveled from out of state and even overseas.  Family members hugged each other in the Division IV Courtroom of Judge Jennifer Smith following the emotional 3-day trial.  Division IV Digital Media Specialist Derek Gray was invaluable in editing, splicing, redacting, and re-editing MNPD body worn camera footage as well as Ring camera videos to prepare them as exhibits for trial.

With the conviction, Christine Roberts received an automatic life sentence.

Following the verdict, family members took time to personally thank the Nashville District Attorney’s office and commended the hard work and dedication of Brian, Elizabeth, Susan, and Derek.

They say although the case was tragic and heart-breaking, Justice Was Served.

 

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.