FROM: JODY S. PICKENS District Attorney General State of Tennessee, 26th Judicial District Criminal Division
On October 31, 2022, officers with the Jackson Police Department responded to the Rodeway Inn in response to a shots-fired call. Patrol officers located Jackson native Travis Hulsey, then thirty-one (31) years old, unresponsive at the bottom of a staircase with a gunshot wound to his chest.
Medical personnel pronounced the victim deceased on the scene. Investigator Dan Long of the Jackson Police Department led the investigation. Police recovered video surveillance from the incident, which showed Hulsey being lured to a hotel room on the second floor by a female while two males waited in a vehicle below.
Once Hulsey entered the hotel room, the males followed. Armed with guns, the males attempted to rob Hulsey, but an altercation ensued. As Hulsey fled from the hotel room, he was struck by gunfire from one of the males.
Hulsey collapsed at the bottom of the staircase while the two males fled the robbery attempt in a vehicle and left the scene. The Jackson Police Department developed Charles Wilson, also thirty-one (31) years old, James Brown, thirty-two (32) years old, and twenty-year-old (20) Keyanna Massengill as suspects.
Massengill cooperated with law enforcement and gave statements to the police and to the District Attorney’s Office identifying her co-defendants from the video as planning and executing the robbery.
Massengill testified that the three of them agreed to lure Mr. Hulsey into the hotel room to rob him. However, the plan failed when Hulsey produced a BB gun and attempted to defend himself during the robbery. Massengill received a reduced sentence in exchange for her cooperation.
On May 1, 2023, a Madison County Grand Jury returned an indictment against all three defendants for First Degree Murder, Attempted Especially Aggravated Robbery, and Felony Murder.
On January 22, 2025, a jury tried Charles Wilson and convicted him of Second-Degree Murder and Facilitation of Attempted Robbery.
On March 17, 2025, Judge Joseph Howell sentenced Wilson to twenty-three (23) years to serve in the Tennessee Department of Correction.
On January 13, 2025, James Brown pleaded guilty to the indictment and received a thirty-five-year (35) sentence for Second Degree Murder and Especially Aggravated Robbery. Assistant District Attorney General Brad Champine represented the State at all stages of the proceedings.
“The video of these individuals luring Mr. Hulsey into a hotel room to be robbed is chilling,” said District Attorney Jody Pickens. “The actions of these defendants show that they value mere property over human life.
“They made the choice and decision to murder a person when the situation did not go as they had planned. In the minds of these defendants, greed won out over any empathy they could have shown a fellow human being.
“While it is very little consolation to the family of Mr. Hulsey, they and the citizens of Madison County will be protected from these individuals for a long period of time.”
