WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Billy Joe Anderson, the man accused by the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD) of killing 20-year-old Brionah Tester in March 2022, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday for unrelated felony drug charges.
According to a release from District Attorney Steve Finney’s Office, Anderson was convicted on methamphetamine charges in May, and on Aug. 21, he was given the “maximum sentence of 20 years at 35% for his range.”
The charges stem from a September 2022 incident, where the JCPD responded to a man passed out in a car at a Mcdonald’s parking lot. An affidavit said Anderson was found with six bags of methamphetamine totaling 29 grams, along with some marijuana.
Anderson bonded out on a $10,000 bond after that Sept. 22, 2021 arrest and was arrested six times between September and January of 2022, including four times with significant amounts of methamphetamine.
Then in March 2022, officers responded to the 200 block of McCall Circle in Johnson City, where they found Brionah Tester with a single gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The JCPD indicted Anderson on a second-degree murder charge in May 2022; he has yet to be tried on that charge.
The release said Anderson’s remaining criminal cases are set for Oct. 6 in Washington County Criminal Court.
