Actual letters from a killer: The murder of a well known Nashville, Tennessee man, Jim Cannon, and his convicted killer's defense ...in her own words.
Jim and Kelley Cannon were married in 1996 and their dream marriage ended in a nightmare 12 years later. Jim filed for divorce on February 29th, 2008. It is the 16th anniversary of that date today.
The couple's marriage started off with a sizzle that no one would have guessed would end in the bang that would reverberate through the entire Nashville community. In the letters below, Kelley shares that the couple allegedly did not even consummate their marriage on their wedding night.
Jim graduated law school and began practicing law in Nashville,Tennessee and the couple quickly added 3 children to the family. Their early years were not a reflection of the success Jim would eventually attain, with him making some bad investments and subsequently filing bankruptcy.
However, Jim started a business that collected bad checks from hospitals and it quickly became wildly successful; landing the young family on the list of millionares in Nashville in the 2000's. This was sadly their marital peak.
With all of their new wealth the couple bought a new home and Kelley, a stay at home mother, took on the task of renovating it into her dream home. It was during these renovations that Kelley fell off a ladder and hurt her back. She was prescribed pain medication and quickly picked up a habit that soon escalated into full blown addiction.
This addiction became a major point of contention in ther marriage and went on to be the back drop of a marriage out of control. Kelley's addiction became so bad that she would spend days drinking cough syrup like it was water when she couldn't get pain pills.
Her behavior became increasingly erratic and cops were called to their home dozens of time in the years leading up to Jim's untimely death. In one incident, Kelley literally beat Jim up in front of their children, leaving him bloody and bruised when police arrived. The erratic behavior continued until one day Kelley rammed Jim's car with their baby inside of the vehicle and he decided to get a restraining order. Kelley, for her part, decided it was time to check herself into a rehab facility.
When she got out in April of 2008, Jim leased an apartment for her, close to their former shared home. However, the marriage remained rocky until the death of Jim in June of 2008.
On the morning of June 23, 2008, Jim's house keeper showed up and noticed the back door of the home was wide open. She entered the home calling out for Jim, but Jim did not respond. It was silent. This was strange since both of Jim's cars were there. As she searched the home looking for Jim, she noticed a dresser had been pushed in front of a closet door in one of the children's bedrooms. When she pushed it out of the way she discovered a disturbing scene. During the 911 call from Jim's housekeeper she explained to the dispatcher that Jim's palms were coal black and he had weird red splotches on his body. When the 911 operator offered to teach her CPR she emotionally screamed that it was too late, Jim is dead.
Jim was lying on the floor on his right side, completely nude with ligature marks around his neck. There was a charging cord next to him and an empty bottle of bleach. Jim's body had been doused with the bleach in an attempt to hide any biological evidence that might be found. There were also multiple beer and wine bottles around the house indicating Jim was heavily intoxicated when he was killed. This theory was later proven true when a toxicology report showed his BAC was twice the legal limit.
Another odd thing that would later be the break in the case was the finger tip of a latex glove in the closet. Several other of the latex gloves would be found and collected around the property. The million dollar question was, "where are the children?"
Police contacted Kelley to see if the children were there and determine just how they got there. They spoke to Kelley who told them Jim had called saying he needed to see her in the early morning hours of the 23rd. She said he told her he was afraid and was being threatened. However, when she got there she discovered the back door open and Jim missing. She claimed she heard her daughter crying and collected her 3 children and took them to her apartment to wait for Jim to contact her.
Kelley told police that Jim had an affair and they were in the process of getting divorced. Police noted she seemed genuinely distraught.
As police began to clear several suspects they learned Kelley had been seeing different men. On the day police obtained a warrant for the home, Kelley arrived with a man who jumped out of the car and ran when he saw police. Suspicions began to mount and when video was obtained of Kelley stealing a box of latex gloves in the days before the murder and her DNA was found inside of the fingertips found in the closet she was charged. Kelley wrote in page 6 of her letter about her blood and where it was on scene, according to her. She alleges she had a terrible cut on her thumb that night and there would be much more blood evidence. Of course, prosecutors would point out the bleach.
Her defense argued at 5 foot tall, Kelley would not have been unable to subdue the much larger Jim. Prosecution pointed to Jim's BAC to explain this. In the end it only took the jury 1 hour to come back with a guilty verdict and sentence Kellley to 51 years in prison.
Recently some letters Kelley has written in prison surfaced with her detailing some of the facts that she claims prove her innocence. She wrote these letters to a woman that is friends with Kelley's former employee. We have included them with the story. Some of the letters are hard to read. There are definitely interesting sections.
What are your thoughts on this case? Could a 5 ft tall woman subdue Jim if he were very inebriated?
More photos below.
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