Brooke Morris Murder: Trial, Appeal, and Wrongful Death Suit

The Brooke Morris murder was the October 15, 2011 killing of a 26-year-old single mother from Knoxville, Tennessee, shot three times on a rural road in Roane County by her ex-boyfriend and former boss, Shawn Nelson Smoot. A Roane County jury convicted Smoot of first-degree murder in August 2016 and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A civil court later ordered him to pay $2 million to Morris’s mother and young son.

Brooke Morris and Shawn Smoot

Morris met Smoot while working at an Allstate Insurance office he owned in Knoxville. They began an affair. Smoot was married, and his wife was pregnant, when Morris ended the relationship.¹ Trial testimony later described Smoot as having become “obsessed with her, violently so” after the breakup.

The Stalking and Abuse Before the Killing

The abuse escalated through 2010 and into 2011. A witness named Kaitlyn Okal testified that after a 2010 dinner outing, Smoot followed Morris to a parking lot in his truck and grabbed her by the arm as she got out of her vehicle, forcing her to flee.² In November 2010, according to an order of protection Morris later obtained, Smoot “pulled my hair, shook me, choked me, & threw his phone & broke the windshield in his truck.”

On January 16, 2011, he broke into her apartment through a bathroom window, threw her to the floor, and, her landlord later testified, attempted to sexually assault her. Smoot paid for the broken window and left a note reading: “Women tend to make us do crazy things and unfortunately that night was one of them.”²

Morris got an order of protection against Smoot in January 2011. It was still active nine months later, on the night she died.³

The Night of October 15, 2011

Morris and Smoot were seen together earlier that evening at a bar in West Knox County. A bartender described “tension” between them and said the atmosphere was “quiet.”² According to later testimony, Morris had agreed to meet Smoot “one last time to convince him to leave her alone.”¹

Around 8:00 p.m., a couple driving on Blair Road in rural Roane County found her body and called 911. A Roane County Sheriff’s deputy arrived within two minutes of the dispatch.³ Morris had been shot three times: in the neck, chest, and back of the head.⁴ Her purse, wallet, cash, credit cards, jewelry, and cell phone were all still with her, ruling out robbery.

Investigation and Arrest

The investigation was led by the Roane County Sheriff’s Department with help from the Ninth Judicial District Attorney General’s Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Investigators quickly focused on Smoot after learning about the active order of protection. There was no murder weapon, no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and forensic testing did not turn up Smoot’s DNA or fingerprints at the scene.³

A Roane County grand jury indicted Smoot for first-degree murder.⁵ He was released on a $250,000 bond posted by his father. Then, on June 25, 2012, he failed to appear for his arraignment. He was caught the following evening in Pearl River County, Mississippi, driving a Toyota pickup loaded with camping gear and a loaded shotgun.⁶

The 2016 Trial and Life Sentence

The case took nearly five years to reach trial. Morris’s mother, Tina Gregg, has said Smoot repeatedly fired his attorneys, forcing the court to restart proceedings each time new counsel was appointed.⁷

Trial finally took place in Roane County before Judge Jeffery H. Wicks. In August 2016, the jury convicted Smoot of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole.⁴ Key evidence included the order of protection, the history of domestic violence, expert ballistics testimony, and the autopsy report. The defense alleged prosecutorial misconduct and twice moved for a mistrial. Both motions were denied.⁵

The Appeal

Smoot’s attorneys raised 19 issues before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, challenging nearly every aspect of the trial, including the warrantless search of his home, the firearms expert testimony, the order of protection evidence, hearsay from Morris’s landlord, and the sufficiency of the evidence.⁵

On October 1, 2018, the appeals court affirmed the conviction. It found that the trial court had erred on three points but that all three errors were harmless and that “their cumulative effect did not change the outcome of either phase of trial.”⁸ Smoot later began post-conviction proceedings, and after his first appointed attorney withdrew citing communication problems, Judge Wicks appointed new counsel in November 2019.⁹

The $2 Million Wrongful Death Judgment

Tina Gregg also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Smoot on behalf of herself and her grandson, initially seeking $7 million. On February 14, 2017, Knox County Circuit Court Judge Bill Ailor ordered Smoot to pay $2 million in compensatory damages to Gregg and Morris’s son.¹

Plaintiff’s attorney T. Scott Jones acknowledged that with Smoot serving a life sentence, “not much” in the way of assets had turned up in his name and it was “unlikely Gregg will ever collect much.” The judgment is valid for ten years and can be renewed. Jones said, “We will continue to renew that judgment to the grave.”¹

Tina Gregg’s Push for Victims’ Rights

The failures Gregg encountered during the criminal case drove her into public advocacy. She has said she was never officially notified when Smoot fled the state before his arraignment, and instead learned about it through Facebook. She has also said the court allowed Smoot, while on bond, to live within three miles of her older daughter, and that after his recapture the $250,000 bond was returned to his parents.⁷

Gregg became a prominent voice for Marsy’s Law for Tennessee, which campaigns for a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing crime victims’ rights, including the right to be notified about an offender’s status. Morris was survived by a son who was three years old when she was killed. The family continues to share her story as part of the push for stronger protections for domestic violence victims in Tennessee.¹⁰

1
Knoxville News Sentinel. Shawn Smoot Ordered to Pay $2M in Death of His Ex-Lover
2
Knoxville News Sentinel (Archive). Knoxville Murder Defendant, Victim Were at W. Knox Bar Hours Before Her Killing
3
vLex. State v. Smoot
4
Knoxville News Sentinel. Dateline NBC to Report on 2011 Shooting Death of Knoxville Mom
5
Tennessee Courts. State of Tennessee v. Shawn Nelson Smoot
6
Knoxville News Sentinel (Archive). Smoot, Accused Murderer, Out on Bond
7
Marsy’s Law for TN. Tina Gregg
8
The Mountain Press. Appeals Court Upholds Smoot Conviction
9
WATE. Attorney for Convicted Murderer Shawn Smoot Withdraws as Counsel, New Attorney Appointed
10
Marsy’s Law for TN. Brooke Morris