A Weakley County youth is dead as the result of injuries received in an accidental recreational shooting incident over the weekend. 

    According to a news release from the Weakley County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the scene of an accidental shooting, which took place near the teen’s home on Billingsby Road (near the Hyndsver Community) at approximately 5:46 p.m. on Saturday, August 16.

    Upon their arrival, deputies found 15-year-old Tyler Edward Klutts with a gunshot wound to his neck. The report states that Tyler and a group of friends were target practicing in a wooded area behind a Billingsby Road residence, when a .22 caliber handgun accidentally discharged with the bullet striking Klutts in the neck.

   Investigator Marty Plunk informed the Enterprise that Tyler, an eighth-grade student at Martin Middle School, and four of his school friends, as well as another friend from out of state, were present at the time the accidental shooting took place.

    Emergency Medical Technicians performed CPR on the victim, who was transported by ambulance to Volunteer Community Hospital in Martin for treatment before being flown to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. However, during the flight, Tyler’s condition dictated that the helicopter land at a hospital in Dickson County, where the youth was later pronounced dead.

    Investigator Plunk stated that no charges would be filed in the case, which has been ruled accidental.

   Tyler is the son of David Klutts and Tracy Watson of Martin.

 (Read the rest of this story in the August 20th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)

By David Fisher Staff Reporter

   

    With the goal of attracting industry and bringing more jobs to Dresden and Weakley County, members of the Dresden Industrial Development Board approved making the necessary commitments for the preparation of a site pad for a new spec building at Dresden’s Industrial Park, during last Tuesday night’s meeting at Dresden City Hall. The board also considered a request from Jeanell Foam Residue of Tennessee, Inc. for tax abatement for the company to afford renovations to a building it owns in Dresden. Jeanell proposes to lease the building to another manufacturer for an expansion of its operations.

 

Dresden Spec Building Grant

 

    Dresden Industrial Development Board Chairman Junior Moore stated that before Weakley County government would enter into an agreement to accept a $750,000 state FastTrack Infrastructure Development Program (FIDP) grant for the project on behalf of the Dresden Industrial Development Board, it would be necessary for the board to agree to “hold them harmless” for repaying the grant money in the event that the board failed to comply with the terms in the agreement. Moore explained that once the agreement is signed and returned to the county, the grant process could move forward. “The county mayor is awaiting approval by the Dresden Industrial Board, so he can sign it and send it back to the state,” Moore said.

    “The county is a conduit for the grant,” Moore said.  The Dresden Industrial Development Board is going through the county to obtain the grant because the county gets a larger percentage (17 percent more) state funding than the city can get.

    The point of contention among board members concerning the state grant was a clause stipulating  construction must begin within three years after the grant is executed by Weakley County and the State of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development or the funds must be repaid.

    The FIDP contract states in part: “Weakley County has agreed to (1) invest at least $3,872,500 in real property within three years of the date of the contract (2) to provide to the State of Tennessee periodic reports on the total number of employees for a period of five years after the initiation of hiring, and (3) to abide by all applicable Civil Rights Laws in the hiring process.”

 

(Read the rest of this story in the August 20th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)

   Preliminary hearings in two separate murder cases were Friday in Weakley County General Sessions Court. One involved a second-degree murder charge against a Gleason man for shooting his own father, and the other preliminary hearing was for a Sidonia man charged in the beating death of his wife.

 

Pruitt Murder Case

 

    During a preliminary hearing in Weakley County General Sessions Court on Friday, a 30-year-old Gleason man accused of murdering his father during a domestic dispute earlier this year had his case bound over to the Grand Jury.

    The case involves Thomas Randall “Randy” Pruitt, who was arrested on May 15, 2008, when a domestic dispute led to the fatal shooting of his father, 61-year-old James Thomas “Doodle” Pruitt, at the family home located at 2570 East Grove Road, between Gleason and McKenzie.

    According to Weakley County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Randall McGowan, the shooting occurred when James Pruitt attempted to intervene in a domestic dispute between his wife and their son, Randy Pruitt.

    Randy Pruitt’s mother, Deborah, offered emotional testimony during Friday’s hearing describing the shooting incident. She stated her husband, Thomas Pruitt, was attempting to get their son, Randy, to calm down when the defendant raised the gun and shot his father.

    After hearing testimony in the case, General Sessions Judge Tommy Moore ruled that there was enough probable cause to support the second degree murder charge, and therefore, ordered the case be bound over to the September term of the Weakley County Grand Jury.

    Pruitt, who has remained jailed in the Weakley County Detention Center without bond since his arrest, is charged with second-degree murder, a Class A Felony.

    The Public Defender’s Office has been appointed to represent Pruitt.

    Pruitt has a previous conviction for manslaughter, serving five years in prison for fatally stabbing a man in Carroll County in June 1998.

 

(Read the rest of this story in the August 20th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)