Shooting victim suffered numerous wounds

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Nathan B. Lalone, a 20-year-old Ooltewah man, has been charged in the shooting death Wednesday night of a 19-year-old man.

The autopsy for a 19-year-old slaying victim shows he was shot numerous times.

A Hamilton County medical examiner's report shows that Christian Sosa's body had as many as 17 entry and exit gunshot wounds.

The men accused in his shooting, Nathan Lalone, Tyler Conrad and Blakelan Adams, on Wednesday had their cases passed to Dec. 13 by General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon.

Lalone is charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Conrad and Adams face conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder charges.

Sosa was shot Nov. 16 while sitting in a vehicle that his girlfriend, Meghan Bennett, was driving. The couple drove to a parking lot near tennis courts on Bill Jones Road in Apison, thinking they were going to do drugs, when someone opened fire on them, according to arrest reports. Bennett was struck and wounded, but she managed to drive back to her father's home a few miles from the park.

Her injuries were not life-threatening, police said.

According to reports, Conrad had set up the meeting between the couple and Lalone and, after the shooting, Lalone told Conrad what he had done. The shooting stemmed from a conflict over a gun and some money, according to reports.

Everyone involved in the case, including the two victims, has been arrested in Hamilton County this year, according to court records.

Lalone was arrested on an assault charge in January. Reports say he punched out a window at a residence and threatened to kill a woman. He pleaded guilty in March and received a suspended sentence of 11 months and 29 days.

Conrad and Adams both were arrested on drug charges in July. They pleaded guilty and were placed on probation.

Because all the defendants violated their probation, the preliminary hearings are excluded from the 10-day rule in Sessions Court, which says that defendants without prior convictions must appear before a judge in that time period.