April 16, 1997 - Suspects Arraigned
It was another emotional day for relatives and friends of a Powell Tennessee family as they sat in a Greene County courtroom for the arraignment for four of the six suspects in the shooting of four members of the Vidar Lillelid family last week. The four suspects are all charged with three counts of capital murder while in the commission of a theft. General Sessions Judge James Carter yesterday ordered the four held without bond until a preliminary hearing scheduled for a week from today. Eighteen year old Natasha Wallen Cornett, eighteen year old Crystal Renea Sturgill, nineteen year old Edward Dean Mullins, and twenty year old Lance Risner are accused of gunning down the Lillelid family members on April 6th on a lonely gravel road near Baileyton. The two adults died at the scene and their six year old daughter, Tabitha, died the next day. Two year old Peter Lillelid remains in serious but stable condition at the U. T. Medical Center in Knoxville. The two other suspects in the shooting are being held in Arizona, pending an extradition hearing next month.