CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A couple convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a medically disabled woman were sentenced to probation this week at the Montgomery County Courts Center.
William “Bill” Norris Greene, 61, and his wife, Deadra Tidwell Greene, 56, both of Cumberland Furnace, had been charged with second-degree murder and physical abuse of an impaired adult in the death of Elsie Mae Greene, who died July 17, 2018, at the age of 65.
During the trial, prosecuting attorney Crystal Morgan told jurors that when EMTs responded to a call at the couple’s residence, Elsie was unresponsive.
“On June 19, 2018, EMS arrived at 765 Green Lane; what they found was horrific,” she said. “They found a 65-year-old woman, lying on a bare mattress, in the corner of a room, with no air conditioning, lying in her own urine, her own feces, her own body fluids; she was not responsive. Her blood pressure was 50/30.”
Morgan said the woman had nine open, bleeding bed sores, some of which went to the bone. “She was skeletal.”
Morgan said Elsie, who was Bill Green’s sister, had been under the care of the defendants for a year and a half, and they had voluntarily assumed the duty to care for her because she had Parkinson’s disease.
Morgan said Elsie died from septic shock. “From the nine gaping bedsores that littered her tiny frame; the same bedsores she developed while in the care of the defendants,” she said.
The couple were both convicted of criminally negligent homicide and physical abuse of an impaired adult, and each received a total of eight years in Tennessee Department of Corrections, which was suspended in Judge Robert Bateman’s courtroom Wednesday morning. They were both placed on state probation.