CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A Clarksville man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the 2022 shooting of a man found dead in his car on Power Street.
According to Montgomery County Circuit Court records, Tristen James Deschapell, now 30, pleaded guilty Feb. 12 to the lesser charge of second-degree murder in the death of 47-year-old John Cole of Clarksville. The case was closed the same day.
He was sentenced to 30 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction at 100% and received 1,338 days of jail credit.
Man found in car with gunshot wounds
The charges stem from a shooting reported at 1:06 p.m. on May 1, 2022. According to previous reports, Clarksville Police officers responded to 708 Power St., where Cole was found inside a vehicle with gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
An arrest warrant for criminal homicide was issued May 9, 2022. Deschapell was incarcerated on unrelated charges in Carrollton, Georgia, when the warrant was served June 16, 2022.
Police previously said the shooting was not random and that the parties were known to each other.
The criminal homicide charge was later upgraded to first-degree murder. Deschapell had been scheduled to stand trial Feb. 23 in Judge William Goodman III’s court before entering the guilty plea to second-degree murder earlier this month.
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