Updated below with reaction from prosecution and defense attorneys.
CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The man accused of murder in a 2014 cold case ended his trial suddenly Thursday morning by taking a guilty plea.
Shaquille Miles – charged with the 2014 murder of Fran “Frankie” Caratini – pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He will serve three years as part of the settlement agreement.
The shooting, arrest
On the night of Aug. 14, 2014, police responded to multiple shots fired on Chapel Street in Clarksville. When they arrived on the scene, they found Caratini, 24, deceased. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
The case went cold for years, and all leads seeming dried up, until Oct. 23, 2020, when Miles was arrested.
The prosecution argued that Miles killed Caratini for selling him a defective gun and then refusing to pay him back $325, while the defense stated that simply too much time has passed since 2014, and with no new physical evidence, the state is relying on “he said, she said.”
Plea settlement
When the plea agreement with three years to serve was announced in court Thursday morning, there were outbursts of dismay.
At issue was testimony by prison inmate Marquis Hall, who gave a police interview saying Miles had confessed that he killed Caratini. However, the prosecution did not turn over the interview to the defense until the state closed its case, defense attorney Jake Fendley told Clarksville Now.
On Wednesday, court dismissed early to allow time for the defense to listen to the interviews.
Judge Robert Bateman told the courtroom, “The court considers its options. The court could declare a mistrial, and that leads to a whole host of issues. But I haven’t had a request to do that.”
When court reconvened Thursday morning, instead of the defense requesting a mistrial, the plea settlement was announced.
Defense attorney disappointed
Fendley told Clarksville Now he was extremely disappointed with trial’s outcome.
“There’s this process called ‘discovery,'” Fendley said. “Most every kind of litigation – and criminal cases are no exception – there’s rules of discovery. The state is required to tender certain things over to the defense.”
According to Fendley, prosecutors are required to provide witnesses’ previous statements. In the 19th Judicial District, all witness statements are tendered by the state as part of pre-trial discovery.
“Obviously, we weren’t provided with Marquis Hall’s previous statements,” Fendley said. “Marquis Hall, as it turns out in this particular trial, is the state’s main witness. So that being withheld from us was absolutely against our typical customs here locally, it’s against our usual rules, and Judge Bateman appeared to certainly not be happy about that. I was obviously infuriated about that.”
Fendley said Hall’s testimony in court wasn’t consistent with the previous statements released Wednesday.
Miles took the deal because his life was on the line, and he was offered three years, Fendley said. “When you’re looking at 60 years versus three, it’s just a difficult thing to turn down.”
Prosecution: ‘We always try to do the right thing’
“Some other materials were disclosed yesterday,” District Attorney General Robert Nash told Clarksville Now. “After reviewing those materials, it changed the landscape of the case. We talked to the defense attorney, and we thought based on the materials that were disclosed that it (the settlement) was appropriate.
“It’s not what any of us envisioned, but once we had to take into account those materials, we had to reassess the case, and we did the just thing,” Nash said.
Nash said the prosecution didn’t have to do a settlement, but it was the most prudent thing to do.
“I know Mrs. Caratini (the victim’s mother) waited a long time, and this isn’t exactly what she wanted, but we do have someone who took responsibility and some small measure of justice,” Nash said. “We’ll try and fix these things and move forward, but we always try to do the right thing.”
Chris Smith contributed to this report.