Homicide charge in wreck may disappear

A young woman charged with reckless homicide has reached an agreement with prosecutors and will appear in court next month to have her sentence passed.

Shelby Lynn Tyson was indicted last month by the Bedford County grand jury on the charges, which stems from an accident in December 2008 that took the life of Ahmed Ali Elmi, 31, of Nashville.

According to John Norton, Tyson's attorney, she will appear March 4 to hear her sentence and, as a result of the agreement, will serve some jail time for charges she faces in General Sessions Court for driving on a suspended license.

Norton stated that Tyson had previously been involved in an accident and was found to have no insurance, therefore her license had been suspended.

After serving the sentence on that charge, she will serve a four-year judicial diversion on the reckless homicide charges, Norton explained.

If Tyson obeys all laws within that four-year time period and complies with her probation officer, the homicide charges can be expunged from her record.

"It's a fair disposition under the circumstances," Norton said. "Everyone involved agreed this was appropriate."

Tyson was 17 when she collided with Elmi at the intersection of U.S. 231 North and Whiteside Road shortly before 6 a.m. Dec. 13, 2008.

According to accident investigator Matt Griffy of the Shelbyville Police Department, Tyson had admitted at the time that she had been drinking and may have fallen asleep.

"She was inbound, crossed the turn lane and struck the Elmi car, causing her truck to turn onto its side," Griffy said at the time.

However, assistant district attorney Richard Cawley said last month while they had thought Tyson was intoxicated, the results of toxicology tests showed no drugs in her system and just "a small amount of alcohol," but she was not legally impaired.

Cawley also added that it took nearly 10 months to get the lab results back in Tyson's case.

Tyson is currently free on her own recognizance.