In Greene County Criminal Court Monday morning, a Mosheim man entered a plea of guilty to second degree murder charges in connection to a shooting death three and half years ago.
38-year-old Ronald Leon Hale of Jeffries Lane had originally been charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Phillip Seay on February 26, 2022.
Greene County Deputies responded to the call to the Hale residence where they found Seay dead from multiple gunshot sounds
Hale was charged with first degree murder about three weeks after the shooting and later indicted by a grand jury on that charge.
Judge John F. Dugger, Jr. this morning sentenced Hale to 17 years in prison. The agreement with the state to the plea requires Hale to spend the entire seventeen years, minus the nearly three and a half years already served behind bars. He had remained held on $500,000 bond since his arrest in March of 2022. Hale standing alongside Attorney Jonathan Cave today, told Judge Dugger “I just want to get there and do my time.”
Cecil Mills on behalf of the state, said Phillip Seay was shot 14 times and the states proof would have shown that Hale admitted he was in love with
Seay’s wife. Had he gone to trial on the first-degree murder charge, Hale would have faced life in prison if convicted. Life in Tennessee carries 60 years with a minimum of 51 years with good behavior. Trial was scheduled to begin in September. Second degree murder, a class A felony, carries a 15-to-25-year sentence with a $50,000 fine upon conviction.
The aunt of Seay’s wife Katherine, Jessica Sheets delivered a tearful but stern victims’ statement to the court following the sentencing. Sheets said the sentence was not enough time for someone who had taken the victim away from his son, his wife and his mother on her birthday. She continued that the sentence was not adequate for the memories and nightmares the victim’s family will be forced to endure. She called the shooting an adult temper tantrum based on jealousy.
