Jesse Myles Compton - homicide victim
Contributed Photo"OK, Mom. I'll be home soon."
Those were some of the last words Cheryl Compton remembers hearing from her 18-year-old son over the phone Wednesday evening.
"Very pleasant," she said recalling the sound of his voice. "I just remember saying, 'Make sure you keep a lot of gas in your truck. I don't want you to run out.' Mom stuff."
Within a few hours, Jesse Myles Compton would be lying dead at his best friend's home with a gunshot wound to the chest after a group of teens passed around two pistols, examining them.
On Thursday morning, Myles K. Stout, 20, was charged with reckless homicide, accused of pointing one of the guns at Compton's chest and pulling the trigger, according to a Hamilton County Sheriff's Office arrest report.
As of Thursday night, Stout remained at Hamilton County Jail on a $25,000 bond.
"The magazine clips were taken out of both of [the guns] and bullets taken out of the chambers. And they were passing them around, looking at them," Compton's father, Jesse Compton, said Thursday sitting next to his wife and recalling the account told to them by their son's friend at the scene.
"And Myles Stout had his. He put the clip in, cocked it where a bullet would go into the chamber and my son said, 'Don't point that at anybody, especially me,'" Jesse Compton said.
When sheriff's office detectives arrived at the house at 9125 Stoney Mountain Drive in East Brainerd, Myles Compton was already dead.
A phone message was not returned at Stout's home Thursday. Compton's parents said their son didn't really know Stout. The two had "friended" each other on Facebook.
Myles Stout first told authorities that Compton had shot himself, according to the report, but when confronted with information from witnesses stating otherwise, he admitted to detectives that he shot and killed Compton. He said they were horseplaying.
This isn't Stout's first brush with the law.
Stout was expelled from McCallie School in 2009 after his involvement in a fight between McCallie and Signal Mountain High School students, which ended in the suspension of all nine Signal Mountain students involved and the expulsion of four from McCallie, including Stout.
He was charged with underage drinking in the incident, and pleaded guilty to the charge, receiving a suspended sentence, according to court records. He was placed on probation, records show.
In the meantime, Compton's parents remember the life of their oldest child, who recently graduated in December from East Hamilton School. With proud smiles, they said he was an honor student.
"You knew when he was there. He had a beautiful smile," said Cheryl Compton, whose voice began to crack as fresh tears emerged from her tired eyes. "Very happy child. Never gave us trouble. We didn't have to make him study. He did everything."
They look at his Facebook page and read entries left by friends. They take comfort in the words.
"I am so sorry for you, Mrs. Compton. We don't understand why this happened. Myles was such an amazing guy. He treated all the girls like princesses. He was always smiling and laughing & makin everyone around him do it also. I don't think anybody realized how he had made such a wonderful and great impact on everyone's life," writes Cassidy Sims. "He was the happiest and friendliest person I ever had the joy of knowing. ... We all know he will do great things up there with God. He needed a new angel and Myles definitely earned his wings. It's not goodbye. It's see you LATER & he will be missed."