STATEMENT FROM NASHVILLE DISTRICT ATTORNEY GLENN FUNK

Regarding the tragic shooting of Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig on November 7, 2023 –

On April 13, 2023, the Nashville District Attorney’s Office prosecuted Shaquille Taylor for Aggravated Assault with a deadly weapon.

At a competency hearing on that date, three court appointed doctors unanimously testified that Mr. Taylor was incompetent to stand trial.  State and Federal law prohibit prosecution of persons found to be incompetent, so therefore Judge Angelita Dalton was mandated to dismiss the case.  Because the doctors did not find Mr. Taylor met the standards for involuntary commitment, he was released from custody on May 19, 2023.

Under Tennessee law, for a person to be involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, at least two doctors must have executed certificates that the person is suffering from a severe mental illness or developmental disability that causes the person to be a substantial risk of serious harm to himself or others.  The doctors must also find that there are no other less restrictive measures than commitment.

This nearly impossible standard impacts public safety.  The law must be altered to accurately balance individual needs with public safety.  At the same time Tennessee must provide more beds and staffing resources to handle dangerous individuals.

I will continue to work with the Legislature on these serious mental health issues.

Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk was honored to join other city leaders in welcoming Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw and other Kurdish officials to our city in early September.  Erbil has just been named Nashville’s newest sister city, befitting as Nashville has the largest Kurdish population of any city in the United States.  Erbil is the Capital of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq. The gathering was held at the Salahadeen Center along Nolensville Pike, in the heart of Nashville’s Kurdish Community.

The Nashville District Attorney’s office welcomes two additional staff attorneys.   Eli Cheely is a graduate of the University of Georgia and went on to attend the University of Mississippi Law School.  Mr. Cheely interned in the District Attorney’s office last summer, and was well-respected by his peers within the office.  He is now working in our General Sessions division, awaiting the results of his bar exam.   Mr. Kevin Kennedy also joins our office as Staff Attorney, awaiting the results of his bar exam as well.  Mr. Kennedy is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School after spending time as a teacher in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School System.  Mr. Kennedy is currently assisting in our Domestic Violence division.  We welcome both of these fine attorneys to our staff.

April, 2023 – A Davidson County jury found Juwan Jaheim Gaines guilty on all three counts for a 2020 shooting at Opry Mills Mall that sent shoppers scrambling.  It took the Criminal Court Division IV jury just 40 minutes to find Gaines (who was 19 years old at the time of the shooting) guilty of Attempted First Degree Murder, Employment of a Firearm during the Commission of a Dangerous Felony, and Reckless Endangerment.   Witnesses stated that Gaines was walking with another group of men when he pulled his gun and began shooting.   Then 19-year-old Michael Pignone was hit, but has since recovered.   Sentencing for Gaines is set for early June.   

With the beginning of a new year, Nashville/ Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk sat down with News 2 to talk about fighting crime in 2023.

A big part of that fight is urging Nashvillians to be responsible gun owners.

Last year, MNPD reported a record number of guns stolen out of vehicles. The majority of them were taken from cars that were left unlocked.

“Part of the problem that we see is that a responsible gun owner does not leave their gun in their car,” said Funk. “If you have a gun in the car, it’s much more likely to get stolen. That’s how we’re seeing a lot of guns end up in the hands of juveniles, and somebody who’s not even 18 years old yet does not appreciate the sanctity of life or the permeance of death and that’s just a really bad mixture.”

The latest release from MNPD revealed 1,353 guns had been stolen from vehicles in Nashville in 2022. More than 70% of them were taken from vehicles. Police also note that vehicle burglaries go “hand-in-hand” with vehicle theft.

“I’m really trying to work hard to get the message out and so is the chief to be safe when it comes to how you store your weapons,” Funk said.

Metro Police Chief John Drake and his officers have been advocating responsible gun ownership for months.  General Funk is optimistic that the partnership between Metro Police and the DA’s office, along with a renewed awareness about safe gun ownership, will lead to fewer gun crimes in the new year.

     Tarek Mentouri, the former massage therapist accused by 19 women of sex crimes, pleaded guilty in late November to six crimes, including felony sexual battery, as part of a plea deal that will place him on the sex offender registry and sentence him to prison for six years.

      Mentouri pleaded guilty to three felony counts of sexual battery, two misdemeanor assault/provocative contact charges, and one misdemeanor charge of criminal impersonation. As part of the plea deal, Mentouri will be eligible for consideration of early release from prison after serving 30% of his six-year sentence.

“If I get to see him in a jumpsuit, that’s kind of nice for me,” said Peyton Parker, the first woman to contact Nashville news outlet WSMV4 Investigates after she said Mentouri sexually violated her during a job interview.  Mentouri pleaded guilty to sexual battery in Parker’s case. “He’s awful, and he did awful things to people, and they’ve had awful experiences,” April Parker, Peyton’s mother, said.   His is trial on the sex crimes was set to begin next year.

The most serious charge Mentouri faced, a rape charge, was dismissed as part of the plea when prosecutors realized the evidence available would most likely not result in a successful verdict on that charge.

Still, Nashville Assistant District Attorney Sarah Wolfson Butler said:

“We are very pleased with the outcome and knowing that this sexual predator admits to his actions. Our office fought vigorously for every victim on this case. Ultimately, we have to weigh the evidentiary strength of each case and a large part of that assessment is victim cooperation. We deeply respect and appreciate the patience and support of the many victims in this case. Thanks to their efforts, this predator is off the streets.”

Prior to the deal, a zoom meeting with as many victims as the district attorney’s office could come in contact with was held and all of the victims agreed to the plea deal.

“I’m satisfied as I can be with what we got,” Peyton Parker said. “Getting any jail time for him is great and having him on the sex offender registry is extremely important. He obviously did more serious crimes, and it would be great if he had been convicted of those. But you’ve got to take what you can.”

34-year-old Joshua Terelle Gaines was found Guilty of First Degree Felony murder Friday, July 29th, 2022 by a Davidson County jury.  Gaines was convicted in the 2018 shooting death of his aunt, Tivvis Garrison.  The case was referred to by many as the ‘sweet potato’ murder since Lead Prosecutor Debbie Housel was able to show jurors how Gaines fashioned four sweet potatoes as ‘silencers’ for the .38 revolver he used in the shooting death.   Criminal Court Division One Team Leader Wesley King served as Co-counsel for the state, and praised General Housel’s preparation and tenacity as the keys to securing a guilty verdict.  Gaines received life in prison, but still faces a sentencing hearing for additional gun and especially aggravated robbery charges that occurred during the murder.

Alex Friedmann has been found guilty of vandalism in the amount of 250-thousand or above after the Davidson County jury heard three days of testimony and watched hours of video surveillance.

Friedmann, 53, was charged with felony vandalism after impersonating a construction contractor, stealing two keys and hiding three firearms and numerous blades in the walls of the Downtown Detention Facility while it was still under construction in 2019.

The jury deliberated for an hour before returning a guilty verdict for vandalism with damages in the amount of $250,000. The crime is a Class A felony and Friedmann faces between 25 and 40 years in prison.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall called the incident a “deliberate, evil” plan and said during the trial that he was sure there would have been massive loss of life if that contraband had been discovered by inmates.

Officers discovered in December 2019 that a maintenance key ring was different from others in the key control room and soon learned two keys were missing — a general movement key and a kitchen padlock key. Video footage revealed that Friedmann had been inside the control room, pocketed a set of keys and removed them from the facility for two hours before returning most of them.

Further footage showed Friedmann bringing tools into the facility, covering up security cameras and repeatedly returning to various areas of the detention center more than 20 times between August 2019 and when he was caught in January 2020.

The DCSO replaced 1,800 locks after the break-in and delayed opening the facility for several months. Authorities estimated the cost to change those locks, and labor to review thousands of hours of video footage, was more than $600,000.

In closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney Amy Hunter said the sheriff’s office had two options.

“Either tear down the entire building or replace all the keys,” she said. “It was not a hard choice for them.”

From the beginning, Ben Raybin, Friedmann’s attorney, argued the state was overcharging his client. He said the law is twofold — there first needs to be proof of damage, and then the value of that damage needs to be determined.

The damage was never in dispute. Friedmann dug into the walls and hid weapons there. He did vandalize the facility, but Raybin argued he never damaged the keys or damaged the locks. The cost to change the locks and to review the video footage, the attorney said, was a “collateral cost” and not covered under the law.

“Why did they have to change the locks?” Raybin asked. “Because they were removed, not because they were damaged.”

Deputy District Attorney Roger Moore said no matter which way the costs are dissected, they met the burden of proof that there was $250,000 in damages.

“Once the keys were removed, from that point on, what was the reasonable thing for the sheriff to do at that point?” Moore asked. “What we can prove is that he compromised, tampered and damaged that facility. Was there any other reasonable alternative?  No.”

The Tennessean – July 21, 2022