SULLIVAN COUNTY – An ongoing investigation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has resulted in additional indictments in connection to a 2018 homicide in Bluff City.

On August 10, 2018, at the request of 2nd District Attorney General Barry Staubus, TBI agents began investigating the death of Herman Rumley (DOB 12/3/46), shortly after his body was discovered inside his home on Woods Road in Bluff City. During the course of the investigation, agents developed information leading to James Lee Fagans (DOB 5/19/59) as the individual responsible for Rumley’s death. On September 10, 2018, Fagans was arrested and charged with Second Degree Murder.

As part of the ongoing investigation, agents determined that James Fagans and his brother, Jimmie Fagans (DOB 2/19/62), sold guns taken from the victim’s home after the homicide.

On May 26, 2021, the Sullivan County Grand Jury returned indictments charging both James Fagans and Jimmie Fagans with one count of Money Laundering and one count of Tampering with Evidence. On Tuesday afternoon, with the assistance of the Smyth County, Virginia Sheriff’s Office, Jimmie Fagans was located and arrested in Marion, Virginia. He is currently being held in the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon, awaiting extradition back to Tennessee. With assistance from the Bristol, TN Police Department, James Fagans was also arrested on Tuesday and booked into the Sullivan County Jail on a $20,000 bond. At the time of his arrest, he was out on a $100,000 bond from the original charge of Second Degree Murder placed in 2018.

  • Jimmie Fagans
  • James Fagans

Published by Leslie Earhart