Mamaw's House: The Sherry Cole and Jessie Allen Murders

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There's a hammer sitting in an evidence bag in Green County, Tennessee, and a jury had

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to pass it hand-to-hand to hold it.

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It came out from under the bed sheets of a 16-year-old boy in a little house where his grandmother

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was raising him and his seven-year-old brother.

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This was in April of 2022.

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It took four years to get a verdict, and in that time, the boy told four different versions

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of that night.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Up in the northeast corner of Tennessee in Green County, there's a country road called

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Old Snaps Ferry Road, and a little house on it that can't settle on what town it's

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in, depending on the news story that houses in limestone or chucky or greenville.

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And if you live out there, you quit correcting people a long time ago.

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The woman who kept that house running was Sherry Cole.

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She was 59.

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Her daughter, Crystal, told a reporter that she couldn't remember ever seeing her mom

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get mad.

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Sherry raised three daughters, and Crystal said whenever any of them hit their lowest

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point in their life, whether it was a divorce or losing a husband, she found her way back

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to that house, and Sherry took her in.

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Sherry believed God made everybody with a good heart.

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Her husband is Bill, and you'll get to know him.

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Living with them are two of their grandsons.

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A little guy was Jesse, and he was seven.

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He was in the first grade at Fall Branch Elementary, and his family said that he was so proud

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of that school, and had more friends than he could even name.

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He loved writing along to work with his pop-all at Eminem Farm Supply.

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And if you've ever watched a seven-year-old who's been told he's helping at a real job,

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you know that that kid walked down those feed aisles like he was the manager of the place.

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Jesse's big brother was Jordan, and Jordan was 16.

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When he testified, his lawyer walked the jury through exactly how he got to that house,

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and it was rough, because he grew up in an abusive home.

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His dad had abandoned him, and then his mom went to jail, and the boys landed with their

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mom-aw and pop-all.

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That's a lot of road for a kid to travel before he's even old enough to drive.

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Somewhere along the way, Jordan started running off.

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He left his grandparents' house four different times with nobody keeping an eye on him, and he

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was missing school, and that's when the Department of Children's Services got involved.

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From September 2, December of 2021, a worker came to the house and worked with Jordan on coping

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skills and ways to de-escalate, which is a fancy way of saying they were just trying to work

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on ways to help him calm down when he would get angry.

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And they rode out an actual safety plan for the family.

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Years later, a case worker told the jury, "Jordan improved."

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DCS closed the case on him on March 31, 2022, which was 24 days before the worst night

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of that family's life.

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It's a Sunday night, in late April of 2022, and Rick Williams is getting ready for bed.

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Rick is Sherry's brother, and longtime Green County deputy, and his phone rings.

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And it's his mom.

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She tells him that Bill can't find Sherry or the boys.

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Rick told the jury that his first thought was a car wreck, and that's where all of us usually

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go, because your mom doesn't text you back for 45 minutes, and in your head she's already

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upside down in a ditch and you're out the door in your house shoes.

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Rick rushed out there to help Bill look for them.

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Sherry and Jesse were outside the house.

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They were face down, side by side.

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Rick told the jury, "I know death when I see it."

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The 911 call went out around 1145 that night, and in all the chaos on that line, people

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blamed Bill, and they blamed Jordan.

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And nobody knew where Jordan was.

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Investigators talked to Jordan three separate times that Monday when they were able to track

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him down, and his story kept changing shape.

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He said he was inside watching TV, and he heard a scream.

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Ran out, saw his brother and his grandmother, and then he took a truck to a friend's house,

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and then he picked up a pizza, bought himself a pair of headphones.

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The whole time, investigators kept telling him the DNA would show what happened, which

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is the cop version of your mom saying she already knows what you did so you might as well

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tell her.

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Then the story moved, and now Jordan is saying that he helped his grandfather move the

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bodies, and his grandfather told him to keep quiet.

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In the third interview, Jordan told TBI agents that he did it himself.

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The state said he told those agents he'd planned it hours ahead of time.

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He also told them that they'd probably find a hammer in his bedroom.

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They did.

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It was tucked into his bed under the sheets, with a trail of blood drops running from

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the kitchen all the way back to that room, and a pair of bloody boots in there with

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it.

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Three stories in a single day from one teenager.

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He was charged as a juvenile that same Monday.

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Because Jordan was 16, the state had to ask a juvenile court to let them try him as an

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adult, and that fall, a judge said yes.

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A grand jury indicted him that January on two counts of first degree murder, and then the

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waiting started, and the trial got pushed back four separate times.

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By the time anybody sat in a jury box, the case said more than 490 exhibits.

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Jury selection started in May of 2026.

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Jordan walked in 20 years old, and a blue shirt, and the local paper said that he barely showed

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any emotion at all.

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Rick took the stand and had to stop over and over, pulling his glasses off and wiping

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his eyes.

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And if you'd been on that jury, you would have had to hold the hammer in your very own hands.

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Jordan's public defender told the jury his client was a traumatized kid who got manipulated

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into confessing to the investigators.

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And he brought a psychologist in who testified that people do confess to crimes they didn't

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commit, which really does happen, especially with scared teenagers.

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And then Jordan took the stand.

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He said that it was easier to lie back then because he thought that lying would get him

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home.

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It didn't.

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He told the jury, quote, "I've learned not to be scared of the truth."

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And the truth, he said, was that Bill cold did it.

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And he'd been afraid Bill was going to kill him too.

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He said that he'd only been guessing about the hammer and never planned on anything that

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day.

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And if you're keeping count at home, that's version number four of Jordan's story.

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The prosecutor asked why, if he'd watched his grandfather do something that horrible,

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he went to little Caesars and then to Walmart for headphones and never told a single person.

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Jordan said that he was in shock and it was his own way of coping.

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That answer did not help him.

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In Why Wood, a 16-year-old do any of this?

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Nobody knows.

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The closest anybody came in that courtroom was a question about whether having no freedom

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made him hate, cherry, or Bill.

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Then there's Bill, the pop-all, from the farm supply store sitting in a witness chair while

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his grandson's defense tells a room full of strangers that he killed his wife and his

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grandbaby.

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Bill looked at a photo and called him Little Jesse.

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He called Cherry his sweetie and he said, "I didn't do it.

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Why would I?

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I had nothing to gain."

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He told them he sits in that little old house now as a lonely old man who's lost his whole

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family.

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In closing, the prosecutor reminded the jury that Bill and his wife had been married 44

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years and he said justice would have been Jesse riding his four-wheeler and tromping

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through the creek in his muck boots and getting to grow up.

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The jury went out that Friday a little after nine in the morning and they came back and under

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three hours, finding Jordan guilty on both counts of first-degree murder.

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It was unanimous.

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That afternoon Rick read a statement to the jury and he told them that he'll carry the

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images from that night for the rest of his life and he asked them for the maximum.

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They gave Jordan two life sentences without parole.

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The prosecutor said there were no winners.

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Everybody loses.

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So far in this case I haven't seen an appeal reported.

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And if you drive out, old snaps ferry road, whatever you call that town, you'll pass the

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little house where Bill told the jury he still lives by himself.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, bingeable true crime stories.

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Hi there.

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I'm Joe.

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I'm the host.

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Subject from a guy who doesn't email people.

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Joe, I've never written an email to a podcast before and I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing

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it now.

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I think it's because I've been listening for two years and you feel like somebody I know

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and then I remember you have no idea that I exist and that's a strange thing about all

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of this.

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Anyway, you do good work.

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I'll go back to being a number in your download count now.

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Wayne, in Billings, Montana.

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Wayne, I see you.

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Thank you for taking the time to reach out to me and thank you for listening to the

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podcast as well and I get it.

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It's kind of a one-sided relationship we've got here unless you and I'm not just talking

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to Wayne right now, talking to all of you.

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Unless you reach out to me, I have no idea who exactly is listening to this podcast.

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I do appreciate the fact that you listen and there are a lot of you that listen and many

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of you do reach out to me and just say kind words to me pretty often and I really do appreciate

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that.

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I get it.

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It's kind of a one-sided deal here.

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I hate that it's that way but I mean this isn't a live in person kind of a situation so I guess

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this is the way it has to be for right now.

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Hey, if you're a brand new listener to this podcast, make sure you hit subscribe wherever

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you're listening right now.

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If you want to stay updated on what I'm releasing, also see photos from the stories that we

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talk about here in the podcast.

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You can go to 10minuteMurder.com.

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You're going to find links to where you can follow the show on social media.

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Talk those links and you'll be fully up to date.

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If you really enjoy the podcast, I'm asking you to do me one huge favor and that is to spread

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the word of 10minuteMurder.

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That means reaching out to your friends and family, letting them know about 10minute.

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I don't mean like call them on the phone and just go, "Hey, Ann Sally, have you ever heard

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of 10minuteMurder?"

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You should check.

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I don't mean that.

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I mean like if you're in the conversation with your friends and your family and it happens

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to come up, you might be talking about a true crime case or something.

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You mentioned the podcast, that's all I'm asking that you do.

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I mean, if you want to get your roller dex out and start flipping through it and calling

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your friends and family that way and telling them about the podcast, you can do that too.

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And I realized I just made myself sound very old saying "Rolodex."

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In some of you are like, "What the hell is a roller dex?

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Don't worry about it.

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It's old people stuff."

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Those of us born in the 1900s, we know about roller dexes.

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That's going to do it for today.

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That's your episode.

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I really do appreciate you listening and I'll catch you on the next one.