Jordan Allen was 16 when prosecutors said he killed two family members at a Greeneville home.

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — A Greene County jury convicted Jordan Allen of two counts of first-degree murder Friday in the 2022 hammer killings of his 7-year-old brother, Jessie Allen, and his grandmother, Sherry Cole, at their family home.

The verdict ended a trial centered on a family killing, a disputed confession and a defendant who took the stand to blame his grandfather. Allen, now 20, was 16 when Jessie Allen and Cole, 59, were killed in April 2022 on Old Snapps Ferry Road in Greeneville, a town in East Tennessee about 30 miles southwest of Johnson City. Jurors later moved into a sentencing phase, where prosecutors sought life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jurors began deliberating Friday morning after several days of testimony and returned guilty verdicts a little after 11 a.m. The state told jurors Allen admitted to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents in 2022 that he killed the two victims. Allen told the jury he lied in that interview because he feared his grandfather, Bill Cole, and because it felt easier than explaining what he said he had seen inside the home. Prosecutors pressed him on why his version changed, why he did not seek help and why he left the home after seeing the victims. Allen repeatedly denied killing his brother and grandmother while testifying in his own defense.

The victims’ injuries became a key part of the prosecution’s case. A medical examiner testified that Jessie Allen suffered multiple lacerations to his forehead and scalp and multiple skull fractures. Asked to identify which blow killed the child, the medical examiner said the injuries were all fatal. Cole suffered brain bruising, lacerations on top of her head and stab wounds to the back of her neck, according to testimony. The evidence placed the killings inside a family home, not in a public setting, and gave jurors a picture of a sudden and severe attack. Prosecutors used the autopsy findings to argue that the deaths were deliberate and especially violent.

Allen’s defense tried to shift responsibility to Bill Cole, the victims’ husband and grandfather. Allen testified that he was afraid of him and that he saw him attacking the victims with a hammer. The prosecution challenged that claim on cross-examination by asking Allen whether he had ever seen Bill Cole hurt Jessie Allen, Sherry Cole or him. Allen conceded that he had not seen physical violence by his grandfather against them and said the older man had raised his voice. The state also pointed jurors back to Allen’s recorded statements and argued that his courtroom claim did not fit the other evidence.

The case also turned on what Allen did after the killings. Under questioning, Allen acknowledged that he left the home, went to a friend’s house, went to a Little Caesars restaurant and later went to Walmart, where he bought headphones. Prosecutors described those stops as part of a plan to flee or avoid responsibility. Allen said he was in shock and that the stops were how he coped after seeing the bodies. The state pushed back, asking whether going for pizza and headphones was the escape plan he had thought about during the day. Allen answered no.

The trial opened Monday and moved quickly through testimony about Allen’s home life, statements to investigators, forensic findings and the family relationships at the center of the case. The defense raised claims of fear and past instability in Allen’s life, including that he had lived in an abusive home before moving in with relatives. The state focused on the recorded confession and the lack of proof, in its view, that Bill Cole killed anyone. Jurors also heard Allen’s earlier statement that he would rather die than harm his little brother, a point raised by his public defender before prosecutors reminded the jury that another statement contained an admission.

After the verdict, Assistant District Attorney General Ritchie Collins said the outcome did not bring a victory for anyone. Collins said Bill Cole had lost his wife of 44 years and two grandchildren and had been accused in open court of crimes he did not commit. The prosecutor said the family’s losses could not be repaired by a conviction. Public Defender Todd Estep offered condolences and prayers for the family after the sentencing decision, saying the case had harmed everyone connected to it. The comments reflected a courtroom atmosphere shaped by family grief as much as legal argument.

The sentencing phase put Allen’s age at the time of the killings before jurors while prosecutors argued that the murders were especially heinous. A jury found that life without parole was warranted, and Allen was sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. The sentence followed the first-degree murder convictions and ended the trial court phase of a case that began with the April 2022 deaths. Any further challenge would move through post-trial motions or appeals.

As of Saturday, the case stands with two murder convictions and a life-without-parole sentence for Allen. The next public milestones would be any formal post-trial filings, appellate notices or court orders entered after judgment.

Author note: Last updated June 20, 2026.