New hearing ordered in 1990s Tennessee truck stop killing

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee appeals court has ruled that a truck driver who is serving life in prison for three killings in the 1990s deserves a court hearing related to DNA analysis.

The Greeneville Sun reports that the Court of Criminal Appeals in Knoxville decided Thursday that Sean Patrick Goble should receive a new hearing after he argued that DNA swabs taken from Brenda Kay Hagy were not compared to his genetic profile.

The court's opinion said that Goble argued "that if the swabs were tested, the results would show that he did not murder the victim." The opinion states that there is no statutory time limit on requests for testing, overruling a lower court's decision that dismissed Goble's appeal as time restricted.

Goble, now 51, was a long-distance trucker living in Asheboro, North Carolina. He confessed to the January 1995 slaying of Hagy, of Bloomington, Indiana, at a truck stop in Baileyton, Tennessee, and then dumping her body in Virginia.

Goble also confessed to killing Rebecca Alice Hanes, of Columbus, Ohio, in Jefferson County, Tennessee. He was convicted in December 1995 of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to two life sentences.

And, he also confessed to killing Sherry Mansur, of Clearwater, Florida, in North Carolina. Her body was found in February 1995. Goble entered a guilty plea in a North Carolina court to second-degree murder and received another life sentence.

Goble's black 18-wheeler had "The Wild One" written across the cab. In the years since his arrest, he has been linked as a possible suspect to homicides in at least 10 other states. Goble is currently imprisoned at the Northeast Correctional Complex in Mountain City, Tennessee.

The new hearing could result in further court proceedings, including the possibility of an order for a new trial for Goble on the Hagy murder conviction, court officials said.

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Information from: The Greeneville Sun, http://www.greenevillesun.com