An Alcoa man serving a long sentence for aggravated rape now faces a new charge: the February 1998 murder of a Maryville man.
Chris W. Knighton, 38, is serving a 31-year sentence at Morgan County Correctional Complex. He was convicted of the April 1998 rape in Blount County.
On Friday, the Blount County Sheriff's Office announced Knighton has been indicted in the killing of Gary Neil Huskey, who was shot and killed during a break-in at his home on Luther Jackson Drive in Maryville.
Knighton is being held in Blount County in lieu of $75,000 bond on the felony murder charge. He's to appear Nov. 26 in Blount County General Sessions Court, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Huskey's 1998 killing was among a series of violent crimes involving related players in the late 1990s, records show. Knighton was convicted of helping in the April 6, 1998, rape of a girlfriend of Stacy Sudderth, a notorious convict who ended up being shot to death in 2009 in Knoxville.
Knighton, then age 18, was convicted of the rape as well as aggravated burglary and theft. Knighton and Andre Jackson broke into the victim's home, tied her up and then Jackson raped her, according to court records.
They fled her home after telling her the attack was a revenge act because Sudderth owed them money, records state. They took jewelry and her cell phone, according to records.
Sudderth immediately offered a $10,000 reward, and Jackson was shot and killed within a matter of hours.
Huskey had been killed in his home about two months earlier.
While Blount County investigators worked Huskey's killing and break-in, they didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Court records indicate, however, that Knighton long had been a suspect.
"A Sheriff’s Office investigator began developing new information regarding the incident in 2011, and over the past few years continued to establish Knighton and other accomplices as potential suspects," according to a statement from the Sheriff's Office.
Authorities allege they talked earlier this year with Knighton in prison.
They allege "he made statements that gave investigators probable cause to charge him with Huskey’s murder."