Ables takes plea deal on child endangerment charges

By WILLIAM NORTHCUTT

Staff Reporter

A Dyersburg man, Hunter Ables, has entered a plea on a case stemming from a 2023 auto accident in which the vehicle flipped, and a child sustained injuries requiring airlifting to a Memphis hospital. Ables and an adult passenger, Tamera Branham, of Dyersburg, were originally charged with six counts of child abuse and (violent) child neglect.

Additionally, Ables was charged with DUI 2nd offense, reckless driving, and the Implied Consent law. Branham has also been charged with felony possession of a Schedule IV narcotic, simple possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. She agreed to a plea deal earlier this year.

According to District Attorney Danny Goodman, Ables’s plea deal reduced charges to misdemeanor child abuse and endangerment. Ables received a sentence of 11 months and 29 days, reduced to time served, 30 days. Ables will also have supervised probation.

“We felt like the best resolution was to get a plea,” said Goodman. He remarked further, “The sobriety test was borderline and would have been difficult to prosecute.”

Goodman said, too, that the arresting officer had been terminated from the Dyersburg Police Department. “Prosecution could be challenged,” he stated. The case, he concluded, “would not have been a slam dunk.”