Springfield woman sentenced to life in prison for murder of five-year-old boy

A Springfield woman will now spend the rest of her life behind bars after recently being convicted in the death of a young boy in Cheatham County.

Last week, 27-year-old Shannon Leigh Elliott of Springfield pleaded no contest in Cheatham County District Court, waived her right to a trial and was sentenced to life in prison for the death of five-year-old Turner Simpkins.

On July 23, 2023, Simpkins was found dead in his home on Poplar Ridge Road in Chapmansboro. At the request of 23rd District Attorney General Ray Crouch, agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation joined the Cheatham County Sheriff's Office and the Tennessee Highway Patrol in the ensuing investigation.

According to a TBI press release, Simpkins' death, later ruled a homicide, was due to chronic blunt force trauma and malnutrition.

According to the TBI investigation, Elliott, Simpkins' father's girlfriend at the time, was responsible for the murder.

In March of this year, a Cheatham County grand jury indicted Elliot on two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated child abuse/endangerment/neglect. She was subsequently arrested and remanded to the Cheatham County Jail on $1 million bail.

At a hearing on July 30, graphic evidence against Elliott was presented to District Court Presiding Judge David D. Wolfe. According to the state's account, Turner's stomach was blue and his face was covered in bruises and cuts on his hands, legs and arms when he was found by local authorities. Although emergency responders attempted to resuscitate the boy, he was not breathing and was suffering from internal bleeding.

According to evidence from the TBI investigation, Elliott often took Turner to work with him, where she was captured on surveillance video abusing the boy over a period of two and a half months. The TBI documented numerous instances in which Elliott hit, slammed, slapped, kicked, bit, and strangled him.

Because Elliot pleaded “no contest” at the July 30 hearing, Judge Wolfe found her guilty of murder and aggravated child abuse. Although she received a life sentence, she had the possibility of parole. In addition to those charges, she received an additional 20-year sentence for two counts of aggravated child abuse, involving the torture of a child under the age of eight. Both sentences must be served concurrently.

“Based on what I've heard today, I think it's unlikely that you'll ever see the outside world given what happened to this child,” Judge Wolfe said.