A Tennessee appellate court is removing Knox County’s newest appointed judge from presiding over a murder case, ruling he either overstated his credentials on the campaign trail or understated them on the bench.

The state Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered Knox County Criminal Court Judge Kyle Hixson to step down from the bench in the case of Isaiah Styles, a teenager accused of killing his teenage pot dealer.

Hixson had served as a supervisor in the Knox County District Attorney General’s office before he was appointed by Gov. Bill Lee in December to take the bench after then-Judge Bob McGee announced an early retirement. Hixson won the Republican primary in March.

In campaign literature and in his application for the appointment, Hixson touted a supervisory role over the presentation of cases before Knox County grand juries. A Knox County grand jury had upped the ante for Styles, opting to serve up a felony murder indictment to replace what until then had been a second-degree murder charge.

Felony murder carries a mandatory 51-year prison term. Second-degree murder carries a maximum 25-year sentence.

Styles’ attorney, Gregory P. Isaacs, asked Hixson to step down from the case since the prosecutor-turned-judge had a hand in convincing a grand jury – citizen gatekeepers – to increase the severity of the charges against his client.

Hixson refused, stating in his ruling he had no role in presenting Styles’ case to the grand jury or overseeing the prosecutor who did. Isaacs filed an emergency appeal. Styles’ case is set for trial later this year.

A three-judge panel of the appellate court not only examined Hixson’s campaign literature, which Isaacs quoted in his appeal, but also reviewed the application he filed for the job.

“The trial judge's judicial application, of which we take judicial notice, states ‘I supervise our office's litigation in all courts with criminal jurisdiction in Knox County, including our three trial court divisions,’” the judges wrote.

Judges: You own the hyperbole

Styles was 18-years-old when he went to a West Knox County suburb in April 2018 to meet Mehki Luster, also 18, to buy pot, according to prior court testimony.

Styles told Knox County Sheriff’s Office Detective Jeremy McCord that Luster had a gun on his lap so he snatched it and ran but eventually turned it on Luster when the teenager gave chase.

Isaacs’ line of questioning in a recent court hearing suggests the teenager will try to mount a defense of self defense in the case. Among the decisions Hixson would make as presiding judge is whether to allow a jury to even consider self defense.

Appellate Judges James Curwood Witt, Norma McGee Ogle and D. Kelly Thomas Jr., said Hixson cannot waive away his campaign boasts of grand jury supervision as hyperbole and still maintain Styles’ constitutional right to a fair trial.

“The trial judge, in denying the defendant's motion to recuse, stated that he did not participate personally or in a supervisory position in the prosecution of the defendant's case while employed as a Deputy District Attorney General at the time of the defendant's indictment,” the judges wrote in the joint opinion.

“His statement, however, belies the crux of the defendant's allegation that the trial judge's application for judicial appointment and campaign literature clearly attest that the trial judge did, in fact, have direct supervisory authority over all grand jury matters at the time of the defendant's indictment,” the opinion continued.

“Regardless of what the trial judge subjectively believed, we conclude that these circumstances create an objectively reasonable question of the trial judge's impartiality in this case and that, therefore, the trial judge erred in denying the defendant's motion to recuse,” the opinion stated.

The appellate judges are putting Styles’ case on hold pending the appointment of a new judge.