ALTAMONT — Adam Braseel walked out of court a free man Friday after 12 years in prison for a killing he always denied — but at a cost.

"It's been a long time coming," Braseel said, as he hugged his mother at the gates of the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex that evening. "I'm coming home."

Braseel, 36, spent 12 years of a life sentence in prison for the killing of Malcolm Burrows, 60, on a rural roadside near Tracy City in Grundy County at the base of the Cumberland Plateau. Prosecutors gave up the fight to keep him in prison — in exchange for a plea to the most minor of the available charges.

Braseel agreed to enter a best interest plea, also known as an Alford plea — meaning he didn't admit guilt but acknowledged enough evidence to convict — to aggravated assault in the case. He's already served more time than he could have been sentenced to for that charge.

The plea spares prosecutors the appearance of a loss on paper and means Braseel walks free a felon.

Braseel hesitated as he entered his plea.

"Do you understand the consequences of this plea?" Twelfth Judicial Circuit Judge Justin Angel asked.

"Yes, sir," Braseel said.

Braseel and his lawyers had come to court to make the case for a new trial when prosecutors offered the plea.

"I think this is a case of imperfect justice," said his lawyer Alex Little. “He doesn't admit guilt because he's not guilty. This way he can go home tonight."

Burrows' killer beat him to death the night of Jan. 7, 2006, after a man showed up at his home asking for help with a stalled car. Burrows offered the man a ride in his Chrysler and never came back.

The new evidence

Fingerprints found on the Chrysler's passenger door handle at the murder scene belong not to Braseel, but to Kermit Eugene Bryson, a local felon who killed himself two years later while on the run for gunning down Shane Tate, a Grundy County deputy.

The revelation of the prints led to calls for a new trial, including from the current Grundy County sheriff.

Braseel swore he was talking with a friend in a church parking lot at the time of Burrows' death, on his way to ride four-wheelers with friends. A jury found him guilty after Burrows' sister, Becky Hill, identified him as the man with close-cropped red hair who left with Burrows that night and then came back to try to kill her. The attacker drove away in a gold colored car, Hill's son testified.

Hill, now dead, picked Braseel out of a photo lineup. No forensic evidence tied him to the crime. Grundy County authorities didn't record the lineup process on audio or video, and Hill gave contradictory accounts of how she settled on Braseel's picture.

Look-alike justice

Bryson and Braseel each had red hair and were about the same height, weight and build. Braseel had borrowed his mother's gold 1995 Acura that weekend. Bryson was known to drive his girlfriend's beige 1998 Ford Escort.

Bryson would have been 27 the night of the killing, on parole for an aggravated burglary conviction and living with a girlfriend in nearby Monteagle. Jurors at Braseel's trial never heard his name.

Tests at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's crime lab didn't match the print to Bryson until late 2017. By then he'd been dead for years.

Friday’s hearing marked the second time Braseel’s murder conviction had been dismissed. The first came in 2015 when Angel threw out the guilty verdict on Christmas Day and ordered a new trial. The state Court of Criminal Appeals overruled that decision and sent Braseel back to prison.

Friday’s plea spells an end to the case.