Description: Knoxville, Tennessee criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with murder.

Randall Lee Rose, age 62, was accused of killing Sharon Leinart in a Knoxville motel in 2013.

DA Charme Allen announces that prosecutors in the Major Crimes Unit obtained a conviction for murder after the victim had been missing for over a decade. Randall Lee Rose, 62, was convicted of First Degree Murder. As part of the plea agreement, Judge Hector Sanchez ordered Rose to serve life in prison.

Announcing the plea to the court, Assistant District Attorney Rachel Hill explained that in 2013, family members of the victim reported her missing after they had lost communication with her early in the year. The victim, a former emergency nurse and volunteer with the Civil Air Patrol, had nearly daily contact with family and friends until January 23, 2013, when all communication ended as did all financial activity. Despite submitting familial DNA to the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, the case went cold for over a decade. In October 2023, detectives with the Jackson Police Department were interviewing Rose about a homicide in Madison County when he confessed to killing a woman ten years earlier at the Sunset Motel in Knoxville. The description of the victim and additional details matched the description of the victim who disappeared in 2013. Rose stated that after he strangled the victim, he hid her body off Chapman Highway.

“After a decade of wondering what happened to their loved one, I hope the judgment in this case allows this family to find some measure of peace,” said DA Allen.

Rose is serving another life sentence for a First Degree Murder case out of Madison County.

Outcome: Defendant pleaded guilty and will be sentenced to life in prison.

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: