NEWPORT-The stabbing death of a Newport man and serious injuries to his 16-year-old cousin in 2008 led to guilty pleas from a 26-year-old local man on Tuesday.

Christopher Luke Gorrell, 26, of 1724 Old Newport Highway, was ordered by Circuit Judge Ben W. Hooper II to serve a full year in the Cocke County Jail with the balance of an eight-year-term to be served on supervised probation.

Gorrell's was among four guilty pleas entered this week by defendants who are accused of unrelated violent felony offenses. Judge Hooper heard three days of non-jury criminal cases this week and is scheduled to preside over a jury trial on Thursday.

Gorrell, in a plea-bargain with state prosecutors, pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with the stabbing death of Vernon Ray Meadors Jr., 20, of 344 Maple Leaf Drive. Meadors was killed and his then-16-year-old cousin was attacked inside the Maple Leaf Drive house they shared on October 2, 2008. Police speculate that the 16-year-old, who was critically injured in the attack, was assaulted in an effort to prevent her from identifying Gorrell as the assailant.

Gorrell was sentenced to concurrent eight-year jail sentences in connection with each attack, along with a concurrent two-year term on an unrelated charge of failure to appear to answer a charge in Cocke County General Sessions Court on November 15, 2006.

Although Gorrell was bound to the grand jury on November 5, 2008, by Cocke County General Sessions Judge John Bell on charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, the grand jury chose only to indict the defendant for second-degree murder of Meadors and attempted second-degree murder for the alleged assault of the 16-year-old.

Grand jurors cleared Gorrell of first-degree murder, for which the only punishment is either life in prison or the death penalty, and attempted first-degree murder.

Investigators reported that both Meadors and the 16-year-old suffered multiple stab wounds, but have declined to comment on a possible motive for the incident. Authorities said police were called to the Maple Leaf Drive residence at 3:19 a.m. on October 2 after the 16-year-old victim staggered to a neighbor's home and asked for help.

Meadors was found dead inside the residence, authorities said, and the teenager was treated at Baptist Hospital of Cocke County and then transferred to University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville by medical helicopter

A two-year-old child who was inside the residence when the incident occurred was not injured.

Two of three defendants who are accused of attacking a Del Rio man last August 29 with metal fence posts entered into negotiated plea agreements with prosecutors on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Twenty-year-old Ashley Marcum, of Domino Street, pled guilty on Tuesday, and 22-year-old Derrick Lee Robinson, of Dry Fork Road, Del Rio, pled guilty on Wednesday in connection with the assault of Chris Jones, 31, also of Dry Fork Road, Del Rio.

Prosecutors allege that Robinson, Marcum, and the third defendant were outside a Del Rio business when the assault occurred.

Assistant district attorneys general Brownlow Marsh and Tonya Thornton told the court that the three defendants struck Jones with metal fence posts on August 28.

Jones suffered serious head and facial trauma which required treatment at both Baptist Hospital of Cocke County and at University of Tennessee Medical Center. Doctors inserted a metal plate into Jones' head and he continues to suffer lingering effects from the injuries.

On Wednesday, Robinson pled guilty to aggravated assault and was ordered to serve five years in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Correction. A charge of attempted second-degree murder was dismissed under the terms of the plea-bargain.

Marcum, who entered her negotiated plea before Judge Hooper on Tuesday, was sentenced to a two-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to facilitation of aggravated assault and having a charge of second-degree murder dismissed against her. Under the provisions of the plea agreement, Marcum was sentenced to time served with the balance of the sentence on supervised probation.

Both defendants were ordered to pay restitution to Jones under the terms of the plea-bargain.

In another plea on Tuesday, 28-year-old Benjamin Laws, of Edwina/Bridgeport Road, pled guilty in connection with the robbery and assault of long-time Parrottsville businessman W.C. Smith.

Laws entered guilty pleas to charges of theft of property valued at more than $1,000 and to aggravated burglary. The sentences will be served concurrently with each other and with an unrelated seven-year sentence the defendant is serving in another case.

Assistant District Attorney General Marsh told Judge Hooper that Laws and another man went to Smith's residence off South Highway 340 in Parrottsville, last December.

The men allegedly lured Smith outside by asking for his services as a well-digger. Then they struck him with their fists, kicked him, and struck with a handgun. They forced Smith to open a safe inside the residence and fled with a bowl of quarters, $12,000 in cash, and a .38 caliber revolver from the safe along with medications from inside Smith's freezer, Marsh told the court.

No charges have been filed against the second person who is alleged to have been involved in the assault.