A court in Knox County, Tennessee is scheduled to sentence a man convicted of dismembering the bodies of his parents. Joel Michael Guy Jr., 32, has already been sentenced to life in the more serious charges for the murders of his parents Joel Michael Guy Sr., 61, and Lisa Guy, 55. The judge will focus on charges of abuse of a corpse in the hearing scheduled to begin Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The murders were senseless and shocking. Guy Jr., a dropout from Louisiana State University, killed his parents in the days just after a final family Thanksgiving dinner at the couple’s Knox County home. Joel Sr. and Lisa were planning on retiring, according to testimony at trial. They planned on cutting off their son financially. This decision was not described as hostile. Angela Crane, the defendant’s half-sister and Guy Sr.’s biological daughter, testified that the couple wanted to move out of their home and that they said it was time for their son to stand on his own two feet.
There was no sign of apparent friction among the family. Guy Sr. had three daughters from a previous relationship, but Lisa was described as a loving stepmother. Crane said both her parents were among her best friends. But Joel Jr., the only biological child of both Joel Sr. and Lisa, attacked the couple at their home, and dismembered their bodies because he was poised to collect a $500,000 life insurance policy if both of them were dead, prosecutors said. He tried to get rid of the remains in acid and went as far as to place his mother’s head in a boiling pot.
[Screengrab via Law&Crime Network]
