23-year-old store clerk is killed during robbery, Tennessee cops say. ‘Taken from us’
UPDATE: A father and son have been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the death of Tava Woodard, Johnson City Police Chief Billy Church said in a June 7 news conference live-streamed by WJHL.
Mark Anthony Sexton Jr., 41, and Mark Anthony Sexton III, 18, were taken into custody following a raid at a Tennessee home. The two men are local to the area, Church said in the news conference. Citizen tips from a surveillance video that was circulated aided police in identifying the two men.
Church said the investigation is ongoing and more charges are possible.
The original story continues below.
Police are searching for two unknown suspects after a store clerk was killed during a robbery in Tennessee, officials said.
Around 1 a.m. on June 2, Johnson City Police officers responded to a convenience store after calls for a “death investigation,” according to a June 2 Facebook post.
“Upon officers’ arrival the clerk was found to be deceased,” officers said. “The death has been determined to be a result of a homicide during the commission of a robbery.”
Police identified the clerk as 23-year-old Tava Woodard, WJHL reported.
The investigation into Woodard’s death is ongoing, police said in the release, and the department shared surveillance photos from inside the convenience store that show two individuals wearing hoodies and face masks. One individual is also shown wearing gloves.
“I’m lost. Sad. Heartbroken. It’s hard to comprehend that she’s gone, that she was taken from us,” Woodard’s father, Jason, said in a June 4 Facebook post.
Woodard celebrated her 23rd birthday with family on May 25, her mother, Melissa Jones, told WJHL. It was the last time she saw her daughter.
“We sat around and talked about memories of her being young,” Jones told WJHL. “She talked about possibly going into education for English, but she really wanted to write a book … she had all kinds of stories to tell.”
In a GoFundMe started by her family to help cover funeral costs, Woodard’s family said she was an advocate for human rights and helped supply the local animal shelter.
“Tava was always trying to make the lives of others’ better,” they wrote.
A lifelong friend of Woodard shared photos from their childhood in a June 5 Facebook post, and said they would read “our troubles away.”
“We passed many milestones over the years but you still had so much more to achieve in this life,” her friend, Kaylee Moore, wrote. “I will do my best to carry your memory and love with me wherever I go.”
Jones told WJHL that she believes more could have been done to increase the security and safety of her daughter while she was working.
“A couple of her friends have told me that she had texted them that night. That she hated it there and she didn’t feel safe; it was scaring her there lately,” Jones told the outlet. “She expressed some concerns as well to coworkers and family, friends. … She expressed some concerns that night.”
On the Johnson City Police Facebook post, one person wrote that they used to work at a convenience store near where the robbery occurred.
“I used to work at the one on South Roan. We got robbed so many times,” they commented. “There should always be at least 2 clerks working.”
Johnson City is about 150 miles northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.
This story was originally published June 5, 2023 at 1:54 PM with the headline "23-year-old store clerk is killed during robbery, Tennessee cops say. ‘Taken from us’."
