Tony Bigoms, 54, right, is led into the courtroom during jury selection for his first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse trial in the November 2012 slaying of Dana Wilkes in Judge Barry Steelman's courtroom at the city-county courts building on Tuesday, April 8, 2014.A 54-year-old Chattanooga man faces life in prison after jurors today found him guilty of the November 2012 slaying of Dana Wilkes.
Attorneys for both sides in the murder trial of Tony Bigoms finished their portions of the case Saturday afternoon. The sequestered jury took off Sunday, and returned to court this morning for closing arguments and deliberations.
When Wilkes' body was found in November 2012, Bigoms' DNA was found on a cigarette butt in her green Jeep Grand Cherokee and mixed with blood on her pink bra, discarded near where the body was dumped alongside South Chickamauga Creek in the 3700 block of Youngstown Road.
Wilkes' head and hands had been cut off, likely with a manual saw. They have not been found.