Gray v. State

The defendant below, John Thomas Gray, and one Monroe Nichols were jointly indicted for the murder of Robert Lee Coleman. A severance was granted on motion of the defendant Gray, but at the trial he was convicted of murder in the second degree and his punishment fixed at not less than ten years nor more than twenty years in the State Prison.

The homicide occurred on May 12, 1956, shortly after midnight. About this time the defendant and Nichols were loafing around with other colored people near Black Hawk Restaurant, in the vicinity of 12th Avenue and Charlotte in Nashville.

It seems that…