Tennessee woman who shot homeless man sentenced to nearly year of probation

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee woman who shot a homeless man five years ago in Nashville’s Music Row was sentenced to nearly a year of probation.

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Katie Layne Quackenbush, 32, who was living in Nashville in 2017, was convicted of reckless endangerment in the shooting of Gerald Melton, now 59, WZTV reported. She was sentenced on Thursday to 11 months and 29 days of probation, according to The Tennessean.

Quackenbush currently lives in Texas and will be completing her sentence there, WKRN-TV reported. She was not granted judicial diversion, as her team requested.

Quackenbush, an aspiring country music artist living in Nashville, opened fire in the early hours of Aug. 26, 2017, after having a tense argument with Melton, a homeless man, the newspaper reported.

According to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Melton was awakened by the music and exhaust fumes from Quackenbush’s Porsche SUV while he tried to sleep on a sidewalk, WTVF reported.

Melton testified that Quackenbush asked him if he “wanted to die tonight,” The Tennessean reported.

Melton said he was walking away from the SUV when Quackenbush allegedly took a gun from her purse, exited the vehicle and fired two shots, according to the newspaper. Quackenbush then drove with her female passenger to Taco Bell before returning home, the Tennessean reported.

At her trial in April, Quackenbush testified the shooting was in self-defense, WKRN reported. She had been charged with attempted first-degree murder but instead was found guilty of reckless endangerment, according to the television station.

Quackenbush’s father, an attorney in Texas, told WZTV that Melton threatened to kill his daughter if she did not lower her music.

“My daughter told him, ‘I have a gun. Get the (expletive) away from me,’” Jesse Quackenbush told the television station. “She pulled off one round as a means of warning, not intending to hit him or kill him. She thought she pointed far enough away from him to just scare him away, and he kept coming and she shot another round.”

Melton, who was 54 when he was shot, survived his injuries but required at least three surgeries, The Tennessean reported.

“This has been the worst experience of my life, but I’m grateful that I had it, because it has changed me so dramatically to the core,” Katie Quackenbush told the newspaper on Thursday. “Sometimes hard lessons are the best lessons.”

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