Details emerge on Hollywood Drive murder at suspect’s arraignment
JACKSON, Tenn. — “This is the State of Tennessee versus Randall Lee Rose,” Judge Blake Anderson announced Friday at Jackson City Court.
According to court documents, on Saturday, September 25, the Jackson Police Department responded to a 911 call saying there was a woman being assaulted.
When officers arrived on the scene, 70-year-old Mary Kelly was found beaten on the floor. She was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Kelly suffered from a skull fracture as well as multiple lacerations to her legs and feet, a deep laceration to her upper right thigh, bruising to both arms and upper chest, and a laceration to her forehead as well as the back of her head.
Officers spoke with a witness who was inside the house during the incident, who says Randall Lee Rose — who was then Kelly’s roommate — assaulted both of them.
As officers were searching the residence, Rose fled out of a window completely nude and disappeared into a wooded area nearby.
The morning of Wednesday, October 20, the U.S. Marshals and JPD officers arrested Rose at the former Bruce Hardwood Flooring building on Williams Street, just a short distance from the original scene.
Marshals say he was in possession of a handgun believed to have been taken during a recent burglary.
“I’m just hoping that we get to see full justice,” said Kelly’s daughter Linda Murphy. “This man, his records… He does not need to be back on the street. He never, he never needs to see the light of day again.”
Rose is on the sex offender registry and is required to wear an ankle monitor, which he removed while he was fleeing from police.
“It was a shock really, to see everything that he had been charged with in the past, and to know that he was still walking around,” Murphy said.
The U.S. Marshals say Rose has a violent criminal history, including arrests and convictions for rape, assault, burglary, evading arrest and firearms charges.
During his arraignment Friday, Rose asked Judge Anderson to appoint him an attorney.
“He knows what he did,” Murphy said.
Rose’s next court date is set for November 4.
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