Three teens should face murder charges in 71-year-old Clarksville man's death, prosecutors say

Stephanie Ingersoll | Leaf Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption Surveillance footage shows teens brutally attacking 71-year-old man Attendant later died after he was beaten at Super Suds Car Wash and Laundry in Clarksville

The relatives of an elderly Clarksville man are left wondering what could have prompted the violent attack on the 71-year-old that left him so badly beaten that he would later die.

"He was a wonderful, Christian, loving, family man," said Teddy Cook’s sister, Opal Sentiff, of Jackson. "He helped everybody."

The attack was captured on video, which police say shows three teenage boys pounce on Cook at the laundromat where he worked simply so he could get out of the house from time to time.

The video shows Cook confronting a customer on an evening in late May. As he and the customer engage in a discussion, another person creeps up behind him with a gun at his side.

The gunman puts his finger to his lips as he sneaks up behind Cook, raising the rifle just as the man turns around to confront the other assailant.

A fight breaks out before any shots are fired.

The video continues to show the men beating Cook with the butt of the rifle and kicking him repeatedly, prosecutors say.

Cook died Sunday from the injuries he suffered in the assault.

The three boys, who aren't even old enough to drive, sit in a juvenile detention facility in Montgomery County, where prosecutors want to charge them as adults in Cook’s death.

An Aug. 1 hearing will determine where the boys stand trial.

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'He was a good soul'

“I'm still in shock," said Angie Thompson, Cook's friend and co-worker at Super Suds Laundromat and Car Wash in Clarksville, where the attack took place.

Just days before, she had talked to him on the phone while he was recovering at the hospital, and he had laughed and joked. But he also complained of a headache caused by brain bleeding, and he said he had to undergo emergency surgery.

Nancy Danner-Monday, who also works at Super Suds, said Cook was loved by customers and staff for his generosity. After her husband died, Cook would visit her each week to make sure she was looked after until she remarried. That's just the kind of person he was, she said.

Like his co-workers, Cook's family members are struggling to understand how something so awful could happen at the hands of such young people.

Cook grew up in Stewart County, one of 14 brothers and sisters.

"We lived on the farm, and all of us children played together," said Sentiff, 80, of Jackson. "We were just very happy children. They were all good memories."

She said he retired from Trane after 33 years and worked at the laundromat to get out of the house.

"He was a good soul," Sentiff said.

His niece, Patricia Melton, said Cook was generous with his time and attention. He always took time to tell his many family members how proud he was of them all.

"He was happy-go-lucky, always smiling and in a good mood," she said. "Something like this shouldn't happen to a man like that. The most shocking thing is they were children."

A memorial service for Cook is scheduled for Thursday at 4 p.m. at McReynolds-Nave and Larson Chapel in Clarksville.

What we know about the teenage suspects

Prosecutors have revealed little about the teenage suspects, aside from their ages.

The boys are in a Montgomery County facility and will remain there for more than a month, as prosecutors wait to hold a hearing Aug. 1 that will determine whether the teens are charged as adults.

Prosecutors fully intend to pursue those charges, Assistant District Attorney Robert Nash told The Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle.

"They killed a man," Nash said. "He was beaten so severely he succumbed to his injuries."

He said because Cook was killed in a robbery, the three will likely be charged with first-degree murder in perpetration of a felony.

If convicted of murder, the boys could remain in prison until they are in their 60s.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 court ruled that mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles violate Eighth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. But the Supreme Court decision applies only to life sentences without the possibility of parole or automatic review of a sentence. Tennessee has an automatic review after 51 years, a period that juvenile-justice advocates consider a virtual life sentence.

Advocates in Tennessee failed last year to get a bill approved that would have required review of a life sentence in the original sentencing court after 15 years. As of February, at least 183 people in Tennessee were serving life sentences for crimes committed when they were teens.