CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A Clarksville nurse aide arrested in Georgia almost a year after being indicted on homicide and elderly abuse charges was sentenced Wednesday to serve three years of probation.
Takesha Shantel Tucker, 47, took an open plea in February to criminally negligent homicide, and the abuse charge was dismissed as part of the settlement.
In March 2022, TBI agents were notified that Tucker – a certified nurse aide working in a Clarksville care facility – failed to properly use a lift while trying to move a patient.
As a result, 88-year-old resident Patricia Oliver died in April 2022 with serious bodily injures from the fall. According to her obituary, Oliver was a Navy veteran and the former historian for the American Legion Post in Dover, Tennessee.
In March 2023, a Montgomery County grand jury indicted Tucker on one count of criminally negligent homicide and one count of aggravated abuse of an elderly adult, according to previous reports.
Nearly 10 months later, in January 2024, Tucker was apprehended during a traffic stop in Kennesaw, Georgia – about an hour from her hometown of Lithonia – and extradited back to Montgomery County.
Tucker apologizes to victim’s family
Tucker addressed the court during the sentencing hearing, saying she cared deeply for the residents she worked with. “I loved my residents, and I took good care of my residents,” she said. “This is not something that was intentionally done.”
Tucker said the care facility was understaffed and that staff members “never helped each other.” She said after the fall, she and another nurse assessed Oliver and called an ambulance. At that point, Tucker said, Oliver seemed responsive.
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“I want to apologize for what happened to Ms. Pat. … I wish it would have never happened, but I can’t go back and change it,” she said through tears. “I also want to apologize to her family that’s in here and let them know that she was taken care of by everyone.”
Prosecution points to suffering, defense says Tucker took responsibility
Assistant District Attorney Kayla McBride argued for a higher sentence, telling the court that Oliver was “particularly vulnerable.”
“As a result of this fall, Ms. Oliver suffered several broken bones,” McBride said. “She did appear – at least based upon the evidence we had available – to have been dropped a second time and spent the next several weeks … in significant amounts of pain.”
McBride added that Oliver’s death caused her family “significant stress.”
Defense attorney Robert Koewler argued for a lesser sentence. “I don’t recall seeing anything about a second fall directly attributed to Ms. Tucker,” Koewler said, adding that TBI interviewed multiple other residents who reported no issues with Tucker.
He also informed the court that Tucker has struggled to maintain employment since the incident. “A simple Google search … will reveal quite a bit of coverage on this case, and as a result … she’s unemployable,” he said.
Koewler argued Tucker had “accepted more responsibility than what the law says she has to because she agreed to plead out of range” and requested her sentence be transferred to Georgia.
Sentencing to judicial diversion
Judge William Goodman III sentenced Tucker to serve a three-year term of judicial diversion. Judicial diversion allows a defendant to avoid a conviction if they successfully complete probation. Tucker was sentenced as a Range II offender for criminally negligent homicide, a Class E felony subject to two to four years. Goodman granted the request to transfer Tucker’s probation to Georgia.
“My heart goes out to you,” Goodman said to Oliver’s family. “If she were here, I would thank her for her service.”
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