Joseph Daniels found guilty of second degree murder, four other charges

CHARLOTTE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Joseph Daniels was found guilty of Second Degree Murder along with four other charges in the case of Joe Clyde Daniels on Saturday morning.

After a nine-day trial, Daniels was accused of killing Joe Clyde in April 2018 and getting rid of his body, which has not been found.

It took nine hours of deliberation for the jury to reach their verdict. It’s a win for the prosecution, but not the outcome the Daniels family hoped for.

“In a case like this, where your client confesses multiple times, and makes admissions against interest multiple times, it’s a difficult case to defend,” says Dickson County Public Defender Jake Lockert.

Lockert says when the state brought Alex Nolan to the stand, the trial changed course. Nolan is Daniels’ stepson and only witness to testify he saw Joseph Daniels carrying a dead Joe Clyde Daniels outside their home three years ago.

“2 weeks ago, this would have been a hands down win for us,” Lockert says. “But they brought in the sibling to testify and that made the difference in my opinion.”

Lockert says it was a tough act to follow, which is why he says the defense chose not to call any witnesses.

“We knew that the DA had right around 28 rebuttal witnesses that there were a lot more statements where my client had made phone calls that he had made that would make it very incriminating,” comments Lockert.

Although District Attorney Ray Crouch won the case, his office declined to comment.

Daniels was accused of killing Joe Clyde in April 2018 and getting rid of his body, which has not been found.

Sentencing will take place in September.

The jury went into deliberations around 2 p.m. Friday. They requested to re-watch part of Joseph Daniels’ confession tape at 6 p.m. and then adjourned for the night just before 8:30 p.m. The jury reconvened at 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

The defense argued that Daniels was coerced by agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to make the confession about killing his son, Joe Clyde Daniels, while the state says this is proof enough that Daniels is guilty.

Sentencing will take place in September.