22 June 2010 :

A Washington County jury in Jonesborough has sentenced Howard Hawk Willis to death. The jury found Willis, 59, white,  guilty of 1st-degree murder in the dismemberment killing of a newlywed teenage couple: 17-year-old Adam Chrismer and 16-year-old Samantha Leming Chrismer. The boy's head was found in Boone Lake in October 2002 and his severed hands were found nearby. The bodies of both teens were found stuffed into two large Rubbermaid totes in a rented storage unit in Johnson City on Oct. 16, 2002. Judge Jon Blackwood passed the sentence and ordered Willis to die by lethal injection, then asked if he wanted a court-appointed attorney for his appeal.