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Bryan Ray Dudley was found guilty of first-degree murder Friday by a Franklin County Circuit Court jury for the 2017 death of David Edward Steele from Tullahoma.

Steele, 33 at the time, was reported missing on Oct. 3, 2017. Several days later, his body was found hanging from a tree in Franklin County.

An autopsy showed that Steele died of asphyxiation with a contributory cause of a gunshot wound to the leg.

On Nov. 13, 2018, a Coffee County grand jury handed up a 10-count indictment against seven individuals, including Dudley, Bruce Edward Dorsett Jr., Shawna R. Haney, Voltaire Xavier Hickerson, Michael Andrew Taylor, Jamie Wilson Holland and Miguel Sanders.

Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott said Dudley’s case was severed from the others, and he was tried separately in Franklin County.

He said that Dorsett, Haney, Hickerson, Taylor, and Holland have been convicted of the charges against them in Coffee County and are serving time in Department of Correction institutions.

Sanders is scheduled to go on trial in Coffee County Circuit Court on Feb. 24, 2025. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence, coercion of a witness, two counts of aggravated assault, and employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Dudley was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence and coercion of a witness.

Dorsett was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence, coercion of a witness and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Haney was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence, coercion of a witness and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Hickerson was charged with two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Taylor was charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Holland was charged with aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence and coercion of a witness.

According to Northcott, Steele was first detained in his home. When he tried to escape, he was shot.

Then he was taken across the Franklin County line and hanged about 75 yards off the road in a wooded area near the intersection of UTSI Road and Spring Creek Road in Estill Springs.

Franklin County officials handled the initial investigation.

Northcott had said former Franklin County District Attorney Mike Taylor later agreed to turn the investigation over to the Coffee County District Attorney’s office for prosecution in Coffee County, where the crime was initiated.