Stalking charge reduced in settlement with soldier

A settlement was reached this week in the case of a National Guardsman accused of stalking a minor.

Andy Lynn Wallace, 35, of Nashville Highway, Lewisburg, entered a guilty plea Tuesday to a single charge of misdemeanor stalking, amended from a charge of aggravated stalking.

As part of the plea, a charge of solicitation of a minor was dismissed.

Wallace will serve nine months of an 11-month, 29-day sentence, and will report to jail on April 4.

He was indicted in November by the Bedford County grand jury on the charges and initially had trial dates set for April 5 and 6, with pre-trial motions held last week.

Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell had ruled in December that Wallace would not go to Iraq with the rest of his National Guard unit, but would be able to travel to Camp Shelby in Mississippi for temporary training as necessary.

According to Bedford County Sheriff's Department records, "Wallace was sending text messages to a 16-year-old juvenile female and also making inappropriate requests of the female juvenile via text message."

"Wallace admitted via text messages that he was sitting ... in the juvenile's driveway outside of her residence... [and asked her] to come outside to meet with him."

A call about the text messages was made to the sheriff's office and authorities found Wallace "approximately 100 yards from the juvenile's residence," according to public records.

Wallace was represented in the case by Shelbyville attorney John Norton.