Jury convicts Curtis Day of second-degree murder in fatal fentanyl overdose

A Cheatham County jury on the second day of trial found Curtis Day guilty of second-degree murder for distributing a Schedule II drug that prosecutors say was the proximate cause of Jordan Knight’s fatal October 2020 overdose.

The verdict followed testimony from three witnesses the state identified as central to its case: Tristan Matthews, who rode with Jordan Knight on Oct. 3, 2020 and described the purchase and use of drugs that evening; Amanda Gale Gober, who said she delivered packaged drugs from the defendant’s trailer to the vehicle; and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents and Cheatham County investigators who presented phone‑record mappings, scene photographs and laboratory testing showing fentanyl and heroin in a recovered sample.

Prosecutors told jurors the evidence showed drugs left the defendant’s trailer in Davidson County and were used that night, and that Knight died of the toxic effects of fentanyl (with methamphetamine also present). Defense attorneys urged the jurors to reject what they called inconsistent witness statements and gaps in the physical‑evidence chain.

The trial record showed the following core facts the state relied on: Matthews testified that on Oct. 3, 2020 he and Jordan Knight drove from Clarksville toward Nashville, stopped in a trailer‑park area where a woman with black hair (identified in court as Amanda Gober) delivered two drug packages through the passenger window, and that later at a Dollar General they and Knight used some of the drugs. Matthews said Knight “started nodding off” while driving back; Matthews moved Knight into the passenger seat, attempted to use Narcan and perform CPR, then called 911 when the Narcan did not revive him. Matthews also testified he discarded some drug packets under the car and in a tree line because he was scared. In cross‑examination Matthews acknowledged inconsistencies in earlier interviews with detectives and said fear of arrest partly explained earlier denials.

Amanda Gale Gober testified she had lived with Day and sold drugs from the trailer on Clarksville Pike in Davidson County, and that on Oct. 3 she stepped outside the trailer and exchanged a single baggie through the passenger window with Matthews in return for money. Gober said she later pleaded no contest in October 2022 to a charge of sale of a Schedule II drug and completed a drug‑court program; she testified in court that what she sold as “heroin” had often been fentanyl.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent Sean Atkins testified he reviewed phone records and used cell‑site data to map movements: two calls from Jordan Knight’s phone to the number attributed to Amanda Gober at about 8:31 p.m. and 8:34 p.m. that evening; Matthews’ phone was mapped inside Cheatham County later that night; and Matthews placed a 911 call from 178 Yates Lane in Cheatham County at 9:05 p.m. Atkins said the call timing and cell‑tower hits were consistent with the timeline Matthews described.

Cheatham County Lieutenant Shannon Heflin described the overdose investigation, explained that law‑enforcement did not recover a suspected drug package at the scene on Oct. 3, and testified that a clear bag with bluish‑green powder later was reported and recovered from a pickup truck on the Yates Lane property several days after the incident. That recovered bag was submitted to the TBI crime lab.

TBI forensic scientist Agent Glynn Glenn (testifying for the analyst on leave) said laboratory testing identified the submitted powder as containing fentanyl and heroin; the report listed a net tested weight of about 0.07 grams. Glenn testified the analytical methods used are destructive and that two independent instrumental analyses were performed and reported.

In closing, the state argued Day controlled the supply, packaging and distribution of the drugs from the trailer and that distribution was the proximate cause of Knight’s death. The defense emphasized Matthews’ changing statements, the delay between the incident and the later recovery of one bag, and the absence of heroin in Knight’s toxicology (the medical examiner testified fentanyl and methamphetamine were present). The judge instructed jurors on venue and the elements of second‑degree murder, including that the state must prove the defendant unlawfully distributed a Schedule II drug and that the drug proximately caused the death.

The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on the second‑degree murder charge. The court ordered a pre‑sentence report and set a sentencing hearing; the judge directed parties to prepare for the defendant’s sentence to be set at a later date.

Matthews’ account, Gober’s admission of selling from Day’s trailer and the TBI lab results formed the state’s primary evidentiary chain. Defense counsel urged that gaps and inconsistencies left reasonable doubt about who supplied which package and where some evidence first originated.

A sentencing hearing and pre‑sentence report were ordered following the verdict; the court advised the matter would return for disposition under local scheduling rules.