On Thursday, November 10, Katie Quackenbush, an aspiring Nashville singer, was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days of probation for shooting a homeless man twice in 2017. She was charged with attempted murder on August 26, 2017, and was released from jail soon after she posted a $25,000 bond.
32-year-old Quackenbush, who is better known by her stage name Katie Layne, had shot 54-year-old Gerald Melton twice after an argument over the singer's Porsche escalated. The Tennessean reported that according to Metro police detectives, Melton was trying to get some sleep around 3 am near Music Row when he was disturbed by "exhaust fumes and loud music coming from a Porsche SUV" that belonged to Katie Quackenbush.
When asked to move the car, the budding Nashville artist refused and instead got into an argument that ended with her shooting Melton in the abdomen.
Although Katie Quackenbush was initially charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a jury found her guilty of reckless endangerment, which is only a misdemeanor charge.
Since the incident, which her father, a Texas attorney, said was an act of self-defense on Quackenbush's part, the singer has moved to Texas from Nashville. The court has allowed her to serve her probation at her new residence.
Nashville singer Katie Quackenbush called the 2017 incident a "hard lesson"
In August 2017, budding artist Katie Quackenbush got into a heated argument with 54-year-old Gerald Melton over her Porsche. As the fight escalated, she aimed her gun at him and fired two shots. The shooting sent Melton to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with critical injuries.
Though Quackenbush was arrested on attempted murder charges, she was released after posting a $25,000 bond. At the hearing on Thursday, she was sentenced to almost a year of probation with no jail time.
Though the Nashville singer got off relatively scot-free from the incident, which could have been fatal for Gerald Melton, Katie Quackenbush claimed that the past few years were a kind of "social punishment” for her. On Thursday, she said:
"This has been the worst experience of my life, but I’m grateful that I had it, because it has changed me so dramatically to the core. Sometimes hard lessons are the best lessons."
Over the years, she has received constant public backlash for her actions, which have allegedly made it difficult for her to secure jobs or apply for colleges. She also claimed that she had been on the receiving end of death threats too. At her hearing, she said:
"Millions of people were making fun of me online. I was convicted by the community before trial...For five years, I’ve been having to live with this ... social punishment. Even after all of this is over, Google is always going to be there. This will follow me for the rest of my life."
Katie Quackenbush's father had previously claimed that his daughter and her companion felt threatened by Melton's presence that night. The gunshots were supposed to be warning shots and were supposedly not meant to hit him.