Les Jones

Johnia Berry > Noel Thomas Cox Walks on Plea Deal

Knoxvile (TN) News-Sentinel - Man accused in killing gets deal in other case

The 24-year-old Cox, via defense attorney Brandt Davis, struck a plea deal in Knox County Criminal Court with Knox County Assistant District Attorney General Del Holley in which the convicted thief pleaded guilty to a half-dozen charges. The remaining counts against him were dropped.

Nearly all of the charges came about July 7, 2006, when Cox fled from Knox County Sheriff's Office Deputy Patrick Lawson in a stolen Ford Expedition, Holley said.

Cox had been the target of accusations by defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs that Cox, and not Taylor Lee Olson, Isaacs' client, killed Johnia Berry, 21, in December 2004 in her West Knox County apartment. Olson, charged in the slaying, accused Cox of killing Berry after the two broke into her apartment.

Olson, however, hanged himself last month in the Knox County Jail, rendering his prosecution moot. He left behind letters in which he continued to blame Cox for the slaying.

DNA testing of crime-scene evidence has failed to provide any link to Cox, and Davis insists there is nothing to back up Olson's claim. "Nothing that I know about the case would lead me to believe Noah Cox had anything to do with the (slaying)," Davis said.