Murderer gets life in prison
Dewayne David Tanner killed his estranged wife and nearly killed her mother.
He planned a bloodbath, but it didn’t end as he expected it would.
Dewayne David Tanner had been practicing with his .40 caliber pistol weeks before the shooting.
He had the ammunition ready and, prosecutors say, he had a list of people he was going to kill — the first was his estranged wife.
Stephanie Diane Chandler Tanner and her mother Beverly Broach went to his house on May 28, 2015. Broach said she had a bad feeling about it but her daughter wanted to go.
It wasn’t uncommon for Stephanie Tanner to go over and see Dewayne Tanner, who they just called Tanner, Broach said.
But he’d gotten a gun and it made her nervous.
“I grabbed my daddy’s hunting knife he left me when he died,” Broach said.
After they had been there for a short time, Dewayne Tanner left the room. They knew he kept the pistol under the couch, Broach said, but it wasn’t there.
“Stephanie was chewing her fingernails; she was just terrified,” she said.
He came back in the room shooting.
Broach had positioned herself so she could grab Tanner when he came in.
He shot her in the arm and struck her with the pistol knocking her down.
“I’m begging him ‘Please, please, Tanner. Please stop.’ And he didn’t,” Broach said.
He turned his back on her and she stabbed him in the back with her daddy’s hunting knife.
“I jumped to stab him, to try and stop him,” she said.
He turned around and shot her in the chest and then went back on the hunt for Stephanie Tanner.
“He thought he killed me,” Broach said.
Bloodbath list
He chased Stephanie Tanner from the home, toward her dad’s house next door, but her dad wasn’t home. He shot her in the leg and then caught up with Stephanie, shooting her several more times.
“He looked over at her face with a stupid smile on his face,” Broach said.
He then shot Stephanie again, killing her.
“She took a deep breath and let it out again. And he says ‘ok’,” Broach said.
Dewayne Tanner then began loading up ammunition and left.
Prosecutors said he travelled to his daughter’s house then to the house of a friend of Stephanie’s in Aragon.
When they’d been separated, prosecutors said, he’d stalk her and spy on her when she would try to hang out with friends. One time, years before, Stephanie Tanner had been at the home and Dewayne was caught hiding outside, watching. Her friend ran him off and, prosecutors say, it may have been the thing landing him on the “bloodbath list.”
“If he couldn’t have her, nobody could,” Broach said. “He was going to kill her and all of her loved ones and friends.”
Police found Dewayne Tanner’s blood at both of the homes. He’d been there that night after murdering Stephanie Tanner. He’d even removed the light from the porch of the Aragon home, prosecutors said.
But the knife had left a deep wound, and he was getting weak.
Early the next morning, Dewayne Tanner was discovered at Cartersville Medical Center, weak
from blood loss from the stab wound in his back.
He told medical personnel he’d attempted to commit suicide. They called police.
“If it wasn’t for Beverly Broach sticking him with that knife, we don’t know how many people we would gone after,” Assistant District Attorney Luke Martin said. “We have some evidence he was going after five maybe six people.”
Broach said Tanner was comfortable pulling that trigger.
“He had a plan,” she added.
The numbness in her left hand and arm is still noticeable and she still has pain in the other places she was shot — four times in all— but she still fought and called 911 to try and save her daughter.
“I’m really thankful to God he did not get to fulfill his bloodbath,” Broach said.
No parole
Floyd County Superior Court Judge Tami Colston sentenced Dewayne David Tanner to life in prison without parole plus 25 years on Monday.
He pleaded guilty to malice murder, aggravated assault with intent to murder and possession of a firearm with a commission of a crime in a brief hearing.
“Our family is very pleased and relieved for Dewayne Tanner to finally plead guilty to the attempted murder of myself and the murder of my daughter Stephanie Diane Chandler Tanner,” Broach said.
Members of her family spoke at the sentencing including Broach, Stephanie’s father John Thurmon Chandler and sister Shonna Dorsey.
This is the second time Tanner was scheduled to plea guilty. In August 2016 before a scheduled plea Tanner cut himself with a razor blade. He then underwent a courtordered mental evaluation and was cleared to go to trial.
District Attorney Leigh Patterson said she hopes that women in an abusive relationship will seek help before that relationship escalates to this type of crime.
“We have a lot of resources in this community to help women living in this kind of nightmare,” she said. “He made her live absolutely a living hell.”
Blessings
With every dark time, there are things we can count as blessings.
Stephanie Tanner was an ordained minister and a devoted wife. She played piano and wrote music.
“Stephanie was a dedicated wife and a devout Christian,” Broach said. “She loved her children with all of her heart and protected her family and children.”
The family came together after the hardship
She’s thankful for Stephanie’s daughter Braelyn Tanner and son Jaron Tanner. She’s thankful for Shonna Dorsey, Stephanie’s sister who was there immediately and Stephanie’s father John Chandler.
A couple of weeks after Stephanie Tanner died they realized her daughter was pregnant and now they’re trying to fill her role for the grandchild they will never know.
She still thanks the responding officers Chad Matthews and Donald Holbrook with the Floyd County Police Department; GSP troopers Jeremy Battle and Justin Henderson; and David Allen of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office.
They cleared the scene and got medical attention for Broach, who was very near death.
She’s also very, very thankful this part of her life is over and Dewayne Tanner is headed to prison for the rest of his.
“She will finally be at peace,” Broach said. “This has made our family stronger, closer and will allow us to move forward knowing justice is being served.”