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Duncan pleads guilty

 Receives 40 years on rape, sexual abuse of minor

By Shane Gilreath

[email protected]

A former Scott County law enforcement employee has pled guilty to five of six charges of rape and the continuous abuse of a child (one case was dismissed). This latest development comes three years after Tommy Ray Duncan was indicted by a Scott County grand jury and charged in the second-degree murder of his wife, April Duncan, 34, whose January 2022 death was originally investigated as a suicide.

At the time of his indictment on the charge of murder, Tommy Duncan was already jailed following a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) probe into the sexual abuse of a child. That abuse investigation was the result of an inquiry into the death of his wife and came at the request of 8th Judicial District Attorney General Jared Effler. According to reports, Duncan raped the victim, repeatedly over a period of years, beginning when she was six years old. That abuse continued until the day of his arrest.

Duncan’s plea came on March 3, 2025, and waived the defendant’s right to a trial, resulting in a 40-year sentence and Community Supervision for Life, a sentence option that is handed to a person who has violated Tennessee’s aggravated rape, rape, aggravated sexual battery, rape of a child, or attempted to violate Tennessee’s laws.   The sentence is authorized in addition to the punishment by the court.  At the time of the plea, the State’s recommendations were upheld and includes a sentence of 30 years for Count 1, the Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child, age 6, a Class A Felony, and 10 years each – to be served concurrently, but consecutive to the first count –  for the four additional counts,  rape, a Class B Felony, in which the victim was aged 14 and 15.  The state requested that Count 3 be entered as an order of nolle prosequi (dismissed without conviction or acquittal).  An addendum to the plea is that Duncan is subject to registration, restrictions, and requirements set forth by the Sexual Offender Registration and should have no contact with the victim.

Duncan is subject to serve the entirety of his sentence and was reprimanded to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.  He awaits trial for the shooting death of his wife.