Tyson given judicial diversion for fatal crash

Shelby Lynn Tyson received a four-year judicial diversion Thursday on reckless homicide charges stemming from a traffic accident in 2008.

Tyson appeared before Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell to hear her sentence for her involvement in the wreck that took the life of Ahmed Ali Elmi, 31, of Nashville.

She was indicted in January by the Bedford County grand jury on the charges, and an agreement was reached last month where Tyson will serve 90 days for charges she faces in General Sessions Court for driving on a suspended license and simple possession of marijuana.

Tyson's attorney John Norton explained that the judicial diversion in this case "is a provision where she is placed on probation for four years."

"If she complies with all the terms and conditions, at the end of the four years, the plea will be withdrawn, the charges dismissed and her record expunged," Norton said.

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 in January 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.