A 17-year-old Tennessee teen has been charged with the murder of his mother after she took away his cell phone. Shawn Willis is said to have shot Sandy Willis at close range as she slept in their Rocky Top home in April 2020. The gun, which was kept on her nightstand, was taken by the teen into a different room so he could load it without her hearing, according to court documents obtained by Law&Crime.
- Willis stood over his mother as she slept. After loading the weapon, the teen allegedly returned to his mother’s bedroom and stood over her before shooting her at close range as she slept. It was a cold and callous crime that truly beggars belief.
- The details of the murder are harrowing. “Shawn T. Willis confessed to taking his mother’s pistol from off of her nightstand as she was asleep,” a court petition states. “Shawn took the pistol downstairs, as to conceal the sound of loading it, then Shawn returned back upstairs to his mother’s room. Shawn walked around the victim’s bed, to the opposite side of the room, positioned himself alongside her bed, and shot her at close range, on the left side of her head, thus causing her death.”
- He confessed to the murder pretty much immediately. When Willis and his father were voluntarily interviewed by police, Willis apparently confessed to killing his mother. It was later revealed that he was angry with her because she had taken away his cell phone as a form of punishment.
- While Willis was 17 at the time of the murder, he’s now being tried as an adult. A juvenile court petition filed in Anderson County Court on May 6, 2020 charged Willis with first-degree murder for killing his mother. Now that he’s an adult, he’ll be tried as one.
- Willis is currently being held at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton. His bond is set at $1 million. It’s unclear when he will be sentenced.
