Tennessee teen Jordan Allen blamed Bill Cole, but prosecutors pointed jurors to a confession and forensic evidence.
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Jordan Allen took the witness stand and blamed his grandfather for killing his brother and grandmother, but a Greene County jury convicted him Friday of two first-degree murder counts in the 2022 attacks.
The trial gave jurors two sharply different stories about the deaths of Jessie Allen, 7, and Sherry Cole, 59. Allen, now 20, said Bill Cole attacked the victims with a hammer and that Allen falsely confessed because he was afraid. Prosecutors said Allen’s account was not supported by the evidence and used his own statements, the autopsy findings and his actions after the killings to argue that he was the killer. The jury sided with the state and Allen later received life without parole.
Allen’s accusation against Bill Cole came during his testimony in Greene County Criminal Court. He told jurors he had seen the older man striking the victims and said fear kept him from telling the truth in 2022. The state challenged the claim by asking whether Allen had ever seen Bill Cole physically hurt Jessie Allen, Sherry Cole or him. Allen said he had not and described the conduct he had seen as raised voices. Prosecutors argued that a person who had just witnessed a double killing would not leave without seeking help and then go to a friend’s house, a pizza restaurant and Walmart.
The case began in April 2022 at the family’s home on Old Snapps Ferry Road in Greeneville. Authorities said Jessie Allen and Sherry Cole were killed with a hammer. Allen was 16 at the time. By the time of trial, he was 20 and facing two first-degree murder charges. The evidence included recorded interrogations by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents. Prosecutors said one statement contained Allen’s confession. Allen said the statement was a lie. Jurors heard portions of the recordings during trial and revisited one of them during deliberations Friday morning.
Forensic testimony gave the state its most graphic evidence. A medical examiner testified that Jessie Allen had multiple lacerations to his forehead and scalp and multiple skull fractures. When asked which blow killed him, the examiner said all of them were fatal. Sherry Cole suffered lacerations on the top of her head, bruising to her brain and stab wounds to the back of her neck. Those details helped prosecutors argue that the deaths were not accidental, sudden in a lesser sense or caused by an unknown outsider. The wounds showed severe force used against two members of Allen’s own family.
The defense worked to give jurors context for Allen’s fear. His attorney brought out testimony about Allen’s background, including claims that he had been abandoned by his father, lived in an abusive home before his mother went to jail and later moved in with his grandparents. The defense also highlighted an earlier statement in which Allen said he would rather die than hurt his younger brother. That statement was meant to show his bond with Jessie. Prosecutors countered that Allen later confessed and that a loving statement did not erase what they described as admissions and conduct after the deaths.
Allen’s movements after the killings became the state’s answer to his grandfather claim. On cross-examination, Allen acknowledged leaving the home and going to several places. Prosecutors asked why he would get pizza and buy headphones after seeing his brother and grandmother dead or dying. Allen said he was in shock. The state framed the stops as evidence of planning and avoidance. The exchange gave jurors a plain sequence to weigh against Allen’s claim that fear alone explained his silence.
The jury got the case Friday after a week of testimony. Deliberations began shortly after 9 a.m. and the verdict came a little after 11 a.m. The sentencing phase began the same day. Prosecutors asked for life without the possibility of parole and argued that the murders were especially heinous. Allen’s age at the time of the killings was part of the sentencing question, but it did not lead jurors to spare him from the harshest punishment requested by the state.
Assistant District Attorney General Ritchie Collins said afterward that the guilty verdict did not create a winner. He said Bill Cole had been pulled through accusations in court while grieving his wife of 44 years and two grandchildren. Public Defender Todd Estep said he offered condolences and prayers to the family and the community. Their comments underscored the damage left by a case in which the accused, the victims and the man blamed by the defense all came from the same family.
The trial court proceedings are complete unless post-trial motions are filed, and any broader review would move into the appellate courts. Allen remains convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Author note: Last updated June 20, 2026.