KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Court TV) — Joel Michael Guy Jr. was sentenced to two consecutive life terms following his conviction for the 2018 murders and dismemberments of his parents.
Joel Michael Guy Jr./Knox County Sheriff’s Office
Judge Sword said during sentencing the crimes were “pure evil overkill,” WBIR-TV reported. The judge also told Guy that he was not as smart as he thought he was and then told him that Guy appeared proud of what he had done during the trial.
Court TV’s Trial Archives: TN v. Joel Michael Guy Jr. (2020)
A jury convicted Guy on all seven counts he was facing for the murder and dismemberment of his parents, Joel Guy Sr. and Lisa Guy. Guy murdered his parents over Thanksgiving weekend in 2016 while visiting from Baton Rouge, La. Guy Jr., a 28-year-old college dropout at the time, reportedly became irate when his parents said they were going to financially cut him off.
Investigators say Guy Jr. stabbed 61-year-old Joel Guy Sr. and 55-year-old Lisa Guy to death before dismembering their bodies. The couple’s remains were found spread throughout their Knox County home when authorities performed a welfare check that following Monday.
Lisa Guy’s head was found boiling in a pot, while Guy Sr.’s hands were found in their bedroom. Their torsos were found inside plastic containers in a bathroom. Guy Jr. had “placed portions of the remains in an acid-based solution in an attempt to destroy evidence,” according to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities identified Guy Jr. as a suspect with the aid of Walmart surveillance video that appears to show him “purchasing items located within the residence that were apparently used in the attempted destruction of the crime scene,” according to an affidavit.
DAILY TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS
DAY 5 – 10/2/20
- A jury found Joel Michael Guy Jr. guilty on all 7 counts.
- Guy was sentenced to life in prison for two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, one count of felony murder for killing Lisa while killing Joel, and two counts of felony murder while committing theft.
DAY 4 – 10/1/20
- The state rested its case after calling 26 witnesses.
- The defense rested its case after entering a stipulation into the record about the defendant’s lack of a criminal record.
- Both sides delivered closing arguments.
- The jury deliberated for two hours before asking to leave and return the next day.
- WATCH: Lawyer of Joel Guy Jr.’s Sisters Speaks to Court TV
DAY 3 – 9/30/20
- Jurors in Joel Michael Guy Jr.’s double-murder trial heard from his former roommate and longtime friend Michael McCracken about the defendant’s estranged relationship with his family.
- In a Dec. 2016 jail phone call between the defendant and McCracken, defendant gets choked up about his circumstances.
- The medical examiner walked the jury though a sanitized (but chilling nonetheless) edit of autopsy photos showing sharp force injuries to the victims’ torsos.
- Jury sees surveillance video from five different hardware/home stores allegedly showing the defendant purchasing items used in the crimes, including blue plastic tubs in which his parents’ bodies were soaking.
DAY 2 – 9/29/20
- Crime scene technician walks jurors through evidence that corresponds with the to-do list found in a notebook in a backpack in the guest room where the defendant stayed.
- Jurors see a security video of the defendant at the same Walmart where his mother was caught on camera three hours earlier shopping for groceries that investigators found in the foyer.
- Video captured at a Baton Rouge Walmart five days before the murders shows the defendant purchasing blue containers that prosecutors say he used to submerge his parents’ body parts in corrosive liquid.
- The forensic examiner says Joel Guy Sr.’s phone received text alerts for credit card charges the day after his murder from LSU, where the defendant was a non-matriculated graduate student, speaking to the felony murder by theft charges.
- The lead case detective struggles for composure as he describes how the smells and sights of the crime scene still “haunt his dreams.”
- The jury sees a stockpot, containers that held bodies
DAY 1 – 9/28/20
- In the prosecution’s opening, Knox County Assistant District Attorney General Leslie Nassios reveals incriminating excerpts from a notebook found in the defendant’s guest room that read like a to-do list for murder.
- Defense attorney John Halstead delivered opening remarks in under two minutes, asking jurors to listen for reasonable doubt and thanking them for their service in this “difficult time.”
- The jury sees photos and video of crime scene walk-through with body parts blurred out, including a covered stockpot with Lisa Guy’s head inside.
- Joel Guy’s daughters from a prior marriage and his sisters give emotional testimony about how the victims were looking forward to retiring, which also meant ending their financial support of their adult son.
