Swain County Sheriff’s Office officials were at Greasy Branch Road on Thursday morning, Dec. 14, investigating the scene of a homicide.
Larry Griffin
lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Two Bryson City residents were arrested Saturday, Dec. 16 in connection with a shooting on Greasy Branch Road last week that led to the death of Nashville, Tennessee resident Isiah Buckley II, the Swain County Sheriff’s Office said.
Kyle Everett Huskey, 29, was charged with murder, attempted first degree murder, armed robbery, possession of firearm by felon, conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine by possession and transportation, trafficking fentanyl, and trafficking methamphetamine. He’s currently in custody with no bond.
Chasity Marie Taylor, 24, was arrested on charges of trafficking fentanyl and trafficking methamphetamine and has an $800,000 bond in jail.
The surviving victim, a woman who’d driven to the area from Virginia, called the shooting in at 5:20 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 14.
Sheriff Curtis Cochran said his office determined that the woman was paid $1,000 to drive the other victim, Buckley, down from Virginia.
Buckley was dead on scene on Greasy Branch Road when law enforcement arrived. According to the warrant for Huskey’s arrest, Huskey allegedly robbed $68,000 worth of unspecified “controlled substances” from Buckley by threatening him with a gun. The warrant alleges Huskey intentionally killed Buckley and tried to kill the other victim intentionally.
Cochran said there were drugs found in the victims’ car when law enforcement inspected it.
The warrants for Huskey and Taylor allege they had hundreds of grams of opium and meth on their persons when arrested.
The killing took place on a barren U-shaped stretch of Greasy Branch Road, with no houses in the immediate vicinity.
Listening to the 911 call from the morning of Dec. 14, one can hear the victim speaking with the dispatcher and telling him the man in the car with her is dead and that she has been shot, too. The call is hard to make out due to poor cell reception on the countryside road where the violence happened. The victim at one point says she’s still in danger and there are people there. She says she doesn’t know the name of the man who shot her.
The call lasts 14 minutes and ends with the dispatcher assuring the victim emergency personnel is closer and closer to her until they arrive on scene.
The woman was transported for medical treatment and, as of Friday morning, Dec. 15, was going into surgery for her gunshot wounds. Cochran said she was expected to fully recover and said they would talk with her about the incident once she was recovered enough to do so.
Both Huskey and Taylor have lengthy criminal histories in the area. Huskey has been arrested numerous times on drug charges in the past decade, along with larceny, robbery and firearm charges. Taylor was arrested in 2016 on assault and battery charges and earlier this year on breaking and entering and drug charges.
Both of them have a court date set for Jan. 2, 2024 on the issue.