NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Gerry Weatherby has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of a beloved Nashville bartender.
He will serve 35 years in prison. Weatherby was charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
In 2018, Daniel Shields was found dead in his apartment after his boss called police concerned when Shields did not show up to work. The medical examiner's office said he suffered a gruesome death, determining the cause of death as "multimodality trauma." The office believes he may have been stabbed, beaten or strangled.
Nearly a year after he was killed, Weatherby was arrested and charged in the case. Police said information developing by the U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force led them to Shields' murderer.
Weatherby has previously been convicted in Nashville for attempted aggravated robbery, theft, prostitution and criminal impersonation, as well as, theft in Wayne County.
