Sharon Hurt

In the suburbs of Nashville, a singer's husband is brutally murdered. He had two gunshot wounds, one through the ear canal and one in the back of his ear. He had been literally executed and left in the passenger seat of a vehicle. Police learn this isn't the first attempt to take his life. he thought he had a blowout and he started seeing his blood everywhere it was a small red car that had pulled up beside him and shot him with a shotgun the investigation uncovers an adulterous affair she took a job as secretary for him i think it was pretty obvious to everybody that she was sleeping on him. But a sting reveals motives more complicated than a love triangle turned deadly. He's listening to every damn thing you and I are saying right now. I just needed to talk to you about that damn gun, and I need you to help me. The life insurance policies increased to $250,000. I think she got dollar signs in her eyes and to hell with everything else. How can they do this and get away with this? I'm not guilty. It's a crisp winter morning in the rural town of Goodlettsville, located 15 miles north of Nashville, Tennessee. Guthel is a small town that's been there since probably the 1850s. It was kind of a railroad stop. The people are working class, church-going type of folk. On the morning of December 20, 1991, a commuter spots a man slumped inside a vehicle by the side of the road and immediately goes home to notify police. My sergeant and another detective responded to the scene, which is on kind of a rural road north of Gullisville. Detectives approach the vehicle with caution and quickly realize they have a crime scene on their hands. It's fairly easy to see that there's a dead guy in a car. The body was left in the passenger seat of a vehicle. He had two gunshot wounds, one through the ear canal and one in the back of his ear on the left side. If someone is shot twice, obviously he did not commit suicide. He had not been there very long. There was very little evidence inside the car or very little evidence on him. There was nothing that would suggest that he had been robbed. The victim had a wallet on him and that driver's license in that wallet, and he gave his address in Goodlesville. The man's license identifies him as 52-year-old Charles Donald Hurt. Obviously, someone had been in the car. There was no indication that his body had moved or been jostled, and that led officers to believe that he was shot in the car at that location. We knew that from the location of the gunshot wounds and the position of the body that Don Hurt had not had a chance to move, defend himself. Homicides in Goodlisville were quite rare, and particularly one where someone has apparently been literally executed. So this was, from the very start, a whole hands-on deck. After Nashville police collect what evidence they can, detectives travel to Don's home to speak with his wife, Sharon Hurt. They, of course, had contacted her by phone and let her know that he had been found. When she called me and told me that Don had been killed, I immediately went to her house. She was stunned. You know, accidents happened, car wrecks happened. and murder's intentional. I don't know what would motivate somebody to want to do that to Don. Something did not feel right. Don Hurt, as he was known to friends, was born in Nashville on July 20, 1939. My daddy was born here. I think everybody in my family was born right here. He was a mama boy. He always kept everything clean for his mama because his mama had five boys. And he was kind of the one that took care of stuff in the house. Don's love of family never went away. And in his mid-20s, he got the chance to start one of his own. My mama was Nancy Kirby. I'm not sure when they really got married, but I think my mama was young. I had my sister, and then she had me. We had just about anything we wanted, you know. My daddy always made sure we had something on the table to eat, and most of the time he was cooking it. Donald was a happy man. He was jolly. He was always carrying on and cutting up, and I think he was just happy with life. Unfortunately, the marriage only lasted little more than a decade. But the ending was amicable. Even though they had divorced, they had remained friends and talked. With a good job and a kind heart, Don didn't stay single for long. I was, I don't know, 11, 12 when I got a divorce. My daddy met Sharon. I reckon they went together for about a month or two or three, and then they got married. My dad was, I think it was head over heels for her. Sharon Wiley was born on March 30, 1953, in Frankfurt, Kentucky, one of eight children raised on a family farm. Mom actually grew up out on Georgetown Road, out there at the old family house. She has half-siblings from her mom, and she has half-siblings from her father. He had five children besides her and Marcy. Sharon and Marcy were just a year apart in their age, and they were besties, you know. Marcy was very studious, very intellectual, very driven to succeed. Sharon was intelligent, but in a whole different way. She was people-oriented. As Sharon entered into adulthood, her larger-than-life personality made her a natural performer, and she loved to sing, especially gospel music. She loved to put little groups together, little ensembles, and do different harmonies. I remember before she got into church, she would sing in the dance halls, kind of a Grand Ole Opry type of feel. Her focus was on gospel music, but she always wanted to make it. While pursuing music came naturally to Sharon, matters of the heart did not. My father was between tours in Vietnam when they got together. He went back for his second tour, and then a little later, I was born. My younger brother, my half-brother, was from a marriage that she had to a man named Ron Derringer. They got together right after I was born. Mom and Dad met. She was a waitress, and she caught Dad's eyes, all I know. So, and it went from there. I would say in between 72 and 73, somewhere in there, is when they actually got married. Chucky is three years older than me. I was more than 73. Ron and Sharon set out together to make her dreams come true. Music was her dream, but it was also her comfort. Late 80s, they decided they were going to buy a bus and kind of hit the road. My mother talked him into quitting and moving to Tennessee. She's going to be a star. But the realities of pursuing a music career put a strain on the marriage. We were living on the bus. And, you know, you can't have a kid and a mom and dad living on a bus. It was rough, you know. And then Dad, he just come and asked me one night, you know, do you want to stay or do you want to go with me? I'm going with you. Going back to Kentucky. So we left. I was still young. I was only 14, 15 years old. My other brother stayed down with her, Chucky. The bus and the tension over all the money, that was the beginning of the end. There was a point where it was, okay, I'm done. I had had enough, and so I went into the Army. Eventually we heard that her and Ronnie had split. After recording one gospel album, Sharon's dream began to fade. She made an album. She worked hard at it, but it never went anywhere. By her late 30s, Sharon's goals still seemed impossible to grasp, but she would get another chance at love. She was working as a cashier at a grocery store in Nashville Don was a truck driver and he made deliveries to that grocery store And that how they met Don was head over heels in love with my mother. Everything I saw out of that man was complete devotion to her. He seemed like a great guy, really nice guy. He treated her well. Three years into their marriage in 1991, their happily ever after comes to an abrupt end as Sharon learns of her husband's violent death. There was a detective or maybe two that came to her house and I told them that she was not in any shape to talk to them. And so they were like, OK, can we come back tomorrow? And I was like, yeah, let her calm down. Let her absorb this. and then come back. The next day, Sharon agrees to sit down with detectives and tell them what she knows. She says the last time she saw Don was around 7 p.m. on the 19th, the night before his body was found. Sharon Hurt told the police that her husband had met up with someone at a flea market to purchase a handgun. Sharon says Don never came home that evening, prompting her to report him missing the following morning. When he did not come back at the appointed time, she became worried over his absence. Police had just started processing the missing persons report when Don's body was discovered. Sharon gives detectives one more piece of information that piques their interest. When the police were interviewing Sharon Hurd, one of the key things the police learned is that he had been shot before. And apparently she had no details whatsoever about the shooting and what might have caused someone to try to kill him. Sharon says they were just trying to move on from the incident, but detectives plan to dig into these claims further. At the same time, an officer is sent to the flea market to gather intel, but comes up empty. It was such an unusual situation from the start. From there, the police focused on who had a motive to want Don Hurt dead. Coming up, detectives learn more about the previous attempt on Don's life. He knew if he didn't make it to the rest area up on top of the hill, he'd probably be dead. And his family suspects someone close to home. We was trying to tell him, Daddy, look, wake up, smell the roses. None of this adds up right. Nearly 48 hours after 52-year-old Don Hurt's body was discovered, Nashville police learn there was a previous attempt on his life. While police dive into their files for more details on the incident, they line up interviews with Don's loved ones and the autopsy becomes available. Based upon the autopsy report, the time frame that his time of death would have been fairly narrow. The medical examiner estimates the time of death to be between 7.30 and 8 p.m. on the 19th. There was still one bullet inside of it and then one partial bullet found inside the car, both of which proved to be a .38 special. Probably killed him instantly. According to Sharon, Don left the house alone, leaving police to speculate how he ended up in the passenger seat. The shots had come from different angles. It was as if the person had moved and or possibly could have handed the gun to someone else who fired a second shot. One of the wounds was a contact wound, which means that it was placed literally against the skin. The other was a near contact, which literally means it was very, very close. If a killer gets that close to someone, that indicates that he knew who killed him. So who did Don Hurt know? Did Don Hurt have enemies? Did he have debts? Did he have anything that would have cost him his life? The medical examiner's autopsy report confirms part of Sharon's story. She did tell the police that he had been shot previously. As investigators track down the police records related to the shooting six months earlier, they speak with Don's family for their accounts. My daddy was going across the Tennessee River. All of a sudden, he thought he had a blowout. And he said he started seeing this blood everywhere. So he pulled over. This was like 4 o'clock in the morning. He knew if he didn't make it to the rest area up on top of the hill, he'd probably be dead. He even drove with one hand, shifting gears and steering. He lived through that. They finally called us and said my daddy was at the hospital. When police spoke to Don at the time, he reported catching a glimpse of a vehicle just before he heard the shot. A red firebird. There was a small red car that had pulled up beside him and shot him with a shotgun. It nipped the top of his shoulder and it went between his jawbone. This certainly gave us rise to try to find that red car and find out who it was. The police had investigated that matter and had determined that it was a targeted shooting. The blast was from what was determined to be a sabo, a projectile fired from a shotgun as opposed to shotgun pellets. At the time, the police pursued family interviews and an investigation into what was going on in Don Hurt's life. But Don Hurt said that he did not want to carry on with the investigation, and that effectively ended the case. The wounds that Don Hurt suffered put him in the hospital for several days and caused him to be unable to work for quite a while. So that did place a financial strain on the Hurt family. There was a bankruptcy filing that had occurred shortly before his killing. From their visit to the hurt residents, investigators find it hard to believe they had any money problems. She seemed to really not have been lacking for anything. She had a new car. She had jewelry. She had essentially anything that she would want. Don's family members also shed light on his relationship with Sharon. The road began with finding out what was her marriage like, what was their life like together. According to his loved ones, Don was completely smitten by Sharon's beauty and talent. But her attraction to him seemed motivated by something else. This is going to sound as bad as anything I'm going to ever say about my mother, I guess. But I think that when she started the process of leaving Ron Derringer, she was hunting for money. And Don made a really good living. I think that she was using Don as a means to an end to support her music career. Don's family tells investigators that their life together hadn't lived up to Sharon's expectations. I don't think she wanted to come back home a failure. She tried to be a star, and she didn't make it. But she did find a rich man to marry. That's the way I take it. Don's loved ones reveal to investigators that Sharon apparently found a new admirer over a year before Don's death. Sharon worked for Lowe's, and that's how she met Joe Rowe. He came in there to buy a lawnmower, and he had a better job for her being a bookkeeper. She took a job as secretary for Joe. He owned an electric company there in Nashville. The family tells detectives their relationship was not as professional as Sharon let on. I think it was pretty obvious to everybody that was close to him, even Don's children, that she was sleeping with Joe Rose. There are times, sometimes she wouldn't even come home for two or three days in a row. You don't stay all day long and all night long at work unless you're doing something. You know, it's crazy. Right in front of my father, right in front of everybody. It was like a big bell rang in my head. During interviews with the family of shooting victim Don Hurt, detectives learn the relationship between his wife Sharon and her employer Joe Rowe had crossed a line The investigators learned he provided her with funds to buy a pink Cadillac and had really been a part of her financial life in paying her cash under the table. Though investigators are hesitant to approach Joe until they know more. We've been getting the information from Don's family. But if you thought somebody was involved with something, you have to be a little careful questioning them because you could step over that boundary. So you really have to have your investigation put together. When detectives take a closer look at the Hurt's finances, they discover Sharon made another questionable decision shortly before Don's first shooting. The life insurance policies, the amounts initially began when Don and Sharon were married or shortly thereafter. The initial policy was $100,000 for Don and $50,000 for Sharon. Before the shooting in West Tennessee, the policy was increased to $250,000 for Don. Well, after my father got shot, he canceled it. And what I was told, Sharon went back and reopened his insurance or got it back going. And my father didn't know nothing about that. Now that Don has been shot and killed, the family is convinced Sharon was involved in the first attempt on Don's life, confirming their suspicions from six months earlier. My daddy was at the hospital. It took me about 45 minutes to an hour to get down to where he was at at the hospital. And lo and behold, Sharon's sister, Marcy, and her husband was there. They was about three hours away from where I lived. They lived in Sevierville. And ain't no way in God's greatest earth that they can get there before we can get there. I think they're the one who pulled the shotgun on him and shot him. Don Hurst's mother had what I would call the mother's instinct, that they were not there because they cared about his well-being. She felt there may have been an attempt to kill him at that time, to finish the job. You got this thing for morphine. They kept on pushing the button, morphine, morphine, morphine. And that's when my grandmother started harling. And Sharon Marcy and her husband, who was asked to leave, he said that he's not for sure who shot him. And we was trying to tell him, Daddy, look, wake up, smell the roses. I said, you know, none of this adds up right now. With Don downplaying the incident, the investigation into the first attempt on his life was never solved. And after reviewing the facts, detectives on Don's murder case suspect Sharon, Marcy, and James may have returned to finish the job, but have nothing directly connecting them to Don's murder. However, a few days into the investigation, they receive a new lead from someone who had driven past the crime scene before it was discovered. She contacted us through Crime Stoppers and told us that she had what she had seen. She recalled that when she had passed by earlier, there were two cars at the scene. It struck her odd, as it was not a usual place where people would pull off and park. But the most striking thing was the car that was in front was, in her recollection, a pink Cadillac. The witness says that when she passed by the spot again at 8.45 p.m., the scene had changed. When she came back, she noticed the pink Cadillac was gone, but that the other car was still there. Investigators ask the woman if she could identify the vehicle. I put together a photo lineup of Cadillacs, one of which was Sharon Hurt's car. I subsequently showed that to the witness, and she did pick out Sharon Hurt's car. Armed with this new information, detectives spend the next two months bolstering their evidence against Sharon and her potential co-conspirators. This investigation took approximately 18 months because of the thoroughness of the police department. It's a circumstantial case. It's like building a brick wall. It's just one small piece of the entire puzzle that you have to look at in totality. to end up getting an indictment and hopefully subsequently a conviction. Investigators put a tap on Sharon's phone line, but it only proves Sharon's anger at the situation. I think either 11 or 12 calls on telephone, which we recorded, it's perfectly legal in Tennessee. Ed Moran, he's listening to every damn thing you and I are saying right now. He ain't got a goddamn thing on me. I didn't kill my husband, and he just can't, he's sorry. Now they're trying to take what insurance we had left. They ain't getting it. I'll fight them through hell in that first. While investigators keep a close eye and ear on Sharon, Don's children take matters into their own hands and file a lawsuit against her. Me and my sister, we took it on ourselves to get a lawyer and try to prevent her from receiving the insurance money. Coming up, investigators take a closer look at Sharon and her suspected lover. He had filed for bankruptcy and wasn't reporting all his income. And the details of a murder plot begin to unfold. This is ridiculous. I know it is. How can they do this and get away with this? After Don Hurt's murder, detectives are heavily investigating his wife, Sharon, for her possible involvement. And Don's children have just filed a civil suit. The civil suit filed against Sharon Hurt was ongoing at the time and also was consistent with current Tennessee law that provides that a person may not profit from their criminal actions. Given the circumstances surrounding Sharon's potential involvement, the life insurance payout is put on hold. As investigators take another look at their evidence, Among their lingering questions is why Don was in the passenger seat of his own car. A more extensive toxicology report becomes available and provides a possible answer. Once they did a more detailed examination, they found out that he had Benadryl in his system. A very large amount of Benadryl. The level was such that he could have and would have been incapacitated as far as being able to essentially defend himself or be able to be in control. He would likely have been able to move with assistance. The amount of Benadryl in Don Hurt's system could really have only been placed in a drink by someone close to him. That would have been Sharon Hurt. As suspicions surrounding Sharon continue to grow, detectives look further into Sharon's lover and employer, Joe Rowe. It seems that in December 1991, he too was in financial trouble. I got a call from a lady who was a bookkeeper over in Old Hickory, Tennessee, and she told me that she was suspicious of Joe laundering money. He had filed for bankruptcy and wasn't reporting his company income. We obtained a search warrant for his business. And FBI agents went out and raided his business and determined he was, in fact, hiding assets from the bankruptcy court. Joe's in bankruptcy, so he's strapped for cash. So money would have helped him. After concluding Joe Rowe had potential motive, police try to question him. but discover he's fled the state and he's taken Sharon with him. She was running. There's no other way to put it. She was running. At that point, circumstantial is beyond a reasonable doubt. The DA and myself both thought that these were the only people that had the opportunity and the motive. and to commit this crime. So therefore, they were indicted basically on circumstantial evidence. Then we got an arrest warrant. Fortunately the civil case against Sharon provides detectives with an opportunity to apprehend the pair They had come back to Nashville for a court hearing on the insurance money. One of the other detectives saw their car. They stopped them out there. All right, let me have your attention for a minute, okay? I'm Lieutenant Hackett, Homicide Division. The police have both over you under arrest for first-degree murder. First-degree murder. That's ludicrous. Joe, this is ridiculous. I know it is. How can they do this and get away with this? Just hush. I'm not guilty. I don't think they were surprised. I didn't get any amazement. I think they kind of knew what was coming. On September 12, 1993, Joe and Sharon are both charged with killing Don Hurt and held on $300,000 bail. His attorney, which was a public defender, approached me and District Attorney Thurman about Joe getting out of jail because he had been sick twice in there and was about to kill him. We said, well, that's all well and good, but what are we getting out of? In exchange for a lower bail amount, Joe agrees to come clean. Joe claims he has an airtight alibi for the night of Don's murder, but admits he provided the weapon used in the shooting. Joe Rowe testifies that they, Sharon and her sister, Marcy Murray, and brother-in-law, Jimmy Murray, plotted to kill Don. They get a handgun from him. He knows they gave Don a drink laced with Benadryl and that they took him, they being Sharon, Marcy, and Jimmy, took Don out, walked him out to the car, got him in, drove him out. and came back, and that Jimmy Murray at one point told him that he and Marcy had both shot Don with the same gun so that each of them would be equally responsible. Joe was a willing participant. Of course, the plan was to get that $250,000. Joe also agrees to record phone calls with the Murrays that can be used against them in court. Part of the information Joe was able to get on the phone by talking to Jim was the fact that Marcy had purchased the Benadryl. Of course, being a nurse, she had knowledge that Benadryl would have incapacitated Don, that she had bought it at a Pacific drugstore in Hendersonville. Later on, we were able to contact that drugstore and establish that she had actually been in there and had purchased Benadryl. It's a big deal. Joe Rowe's cooperation was important. It told the behind-the-scenes view that the jury needed to hear. But we didn't know what was fixing to happen. In the months following Joe Rowe's confession, prosecutors strengthened their case against his alleged co-conspirators, Sharon Hurt, her sister Marcy, and Marcy's husband, James Murray. According to Joe, the Murrays were also involved in the first attempt on Don's life. The first shooting had been from someone firing a shotgun blast from a red firebird. Sure enough, the couple have a red firebird registered to James. And that's not all that connects them to the first shooting. With the assistance of the Sevier County law enforcement officials, they assisted in serving search warrants on the Murray property, obtaining the car, and the shotgun. It was able to be matched as the gun used in the West Tennessee shooting. On August 28, 1994, Marcy and James Murray are arrested in Franklin, Kentucky, and charged with murder. The following year, in July 1995, they stand trial alongside Sharon Hurt. They did not have any physical evidence at all linking my mom to the crime. What they had was circumstantial and Joe Rowe. That was it. I thought the trial was a lot of him telling what he thought. A lot of what went on down through there, it just didn't seem like Mom. And I really don't believe she was there for most of it. The prosecution argues Sharon had every reason to want Don out of the picture for good. Sharon's motive was to use the proceeds from this insurance to help with her singing music career and gospel music. Marcy and Jim, I think they were broke most of the time, didn't have any money. Anything that they could have got would have been beneficial to them, of course. Marcy Murray, I really believe her motivation was that she loved her sister. and if Sharon Hurt asked her to do something, she would do it. I believe Sharon Hurt told the police that Don had met some stranger at a flea market to buy a gun because she would have known they were going to find out that he had been shot several months before. and my speculation is that she was setting up essentially an alibi that he was trying to get a weapon for protection against this unknown person who was trying to kill him. The fact that Sharon Hurd had called to say that her husband was missing was one of those interesting things that the police weighed in on. Her appearing to be at times a grieving widow but at the same time, making sure that her insurance agent knew that she wanted to collect on the life insurance policy. The defense, however, maintains all three of the accused are innocent and believe Joe Rowe made up his story. They tried to point fingers at other people. Anybody but them, of course. They weren't admitting anything. So basically their defense was, we didn't do it. Somebody else did. After just two hours of deliberation, the jury returns with a verdict. The trial resulted in all three defendants being convicted of first-degree murder and all three defendants being convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for their actions that included the Benton County shooting. Sharon received a sentence of life plus 24. Jim received a sentence of life plus 22. And Marcy received a sentence of life plus 20. And all three are still incarcerated. I think justice was served in this case absolutely. Don Hurt was, by all accounts, a decent, hardworking family man who had done nothing to deserve being killed. the whole bunch were attainted to some degree and greedy the most guilty person be sharon because i mean she could always say no i'll just divorce it i think she got dollar signs in her eyes and to hell with everything else it's amazing how all that turned around over money But it did. And she's paying for it. She's sitting down there paying for it right now. After his co-conspirator's trial, Joe Rowe pleads guilty to conspiracy and is sentenced to 18 years in prison. But for Don Hurt's loved ones, it's a hollow victory. I think he'd be very proud of his grandkids. It's very unfortunate that he missed out on those things. He was a good man and a bright, happy person and something we could use a lot more of in the world. Nobody deserves what he got. Nobody. All for just the love of money. All I got to say is the world's one list of a good man.