Former UT Defensive Back Brent Vinson arrested

KNOXVILLE- A violation of probation warrant has been issued against a former University of Tennessee football standout awaiting extradition in Alabama to face accessory to murder charges in connection with a marijuana dealer's shooting death in Knoxville last May.

Court records show that Brent Vinson hasn't paid any court costs or fines and has failed to show up for the past two hearings set in a misdemeanor pot possession case for which he had received diversion. If Vinson had not run afoul of the law and had met his court obligations in the case, he would have been eligible under diversion to have the case erased from his record.

Now, however, prosecutors are seeking to revoke his probation and take away his diversion status.

The pot charge and violation warrant are the least of Vinson's legal woes, though. He is in a jail in Lauderdale County, Ala., awaiting extradition on charges of accessory to murder and tampering with evidence in connection with the May 2009 shooting death of Charles Austin Corn, a 23-year-old UT student who was alleged by police to be a major marijuana supplier in Knoxville.

Vinson was at Corn's Spruce Ridge Way apartment in South Knoxville when Corn was shot in what police said was a robbery. The Knoxville Police Department initially classified Vinson and fellow UT student Kinder Cole Tuckwiller, also 23, as witnesses. No one has been charged as the triggerman in Corn's slaying. Tuckwiller was robbed of his pot stash the day before Corn was shot. Former UT basketball player Ramar Smith and UT student Kaoun Kaihani face charges in Tuckwiller's case.

Vinson, a defensive back, was dismissed from the UT football team late last year by then-coach Lane Kiffin.

The marijuana possession charge was filed against Vinson in October 2008 after Knoxville police found a bag of the illegal weed in his shoe after a traffic stop on Gallaher View Road.

Then-coach Phillip Fulmer suspended Vinson for a game against South Carolina for an unspecified violation of team rules. It was his third suspension of the season. Vinson wasn’t allowed to make the trip to UCLA for the season opener because of offseason academic shortcomings. He was also suspended for part of the Northern Illinois game after showing up late to a team meeting.

U.S. marshals who arrested Vinson in Alabama said he had moved there in hopes of enrolling at the University of North Alabama and joining the football team there.

Reference:
Satterfield, J. (2010, February 11). Former ut player vinson faces knox county probation violation. Knoxville News Sentinel,