Nathan Knight

Nathan Glenn Knight, known to his loved ones as "Baybow," was remembered as a free spirit with a heart of gold. The 29-year-old Greeneville, Tennessee man’s life was brought to a violent and tragic end in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 9, 2020, leaving his family and community in mourning. His death was part of a series of shootings that unfolded in the Tusculum area of Greene County, prompting a major joint investigation.

The violence began shortly after 3:00 a.m. when deputies from the Greene County Sheriff's Office were called to a home on Round Knob Road. They found 37-year-old Gary Garner suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Garner told investigators he had been shot in the Tusculum area before making his way to the residence. He was transported to Johnson City Medical Center for treatment. A short time later, authorities received a second call about another shooting victim. On Richland Road, also in the Tusculum area, they discovered Nathan Knight. He had sustained a fatal gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The two shootings launched a joint investigation by the Greene County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. In the days that followed, authorities identified two individuals they wanted to speak with regarding the weekend's violence. They named 24-year-old William Jacob Silvers, also known as "Fatboy," as a person of interest and announced they were also seeking 29-year-old Whitney Ann Legg for questioning, believing she was with Silvers. An appeal was made to the public for any information on their whereabouts.

Less than a week later, Silvers and Legg were located and taken into custody in Cumberland County, Tennessee. They were initially held on local drug-related charges, with holds placed on them for the Greene County investigation. Investigators from Greene County traveled to Cumberland County to question the pair in connection with the shootings that injured Garner and killed Nathan Knight.

Following the investigation, William Jacob Silvers was charged in Greene County with attempted second-degree murder, employing a firearm with the intent to go armed, two counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Whitney Ann Legg was charged with being an accessory after the fact. The case moved through the legal system for nearly two years before reaching a conclusion.

In January 2022, the case came to a close in Greene County Criminal Court. William Jacob Silvers, then 26, accepted a plea agreement. In exchange for his plea, the charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault were dismissed. Silvers pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. He was sentenced to eight years of supervised probation, which was to be served after a separate four-year probation term from a 2019 conviction in another county. On the same day, the accessory after the fact charge against Whitney Ann Legg was dismissed. As of January 2022, with the acceptance of the plea agreement, the legal proceedings in Nathan Knight's death concluded.