The following information was provided in a press release issued by the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
Nicholas Antonio Cheaton, a 42-year-old Chattanooga man and longtime Chattanooga criminal,
was sentenced to serve the remainder of his life in the Georgia Department of Corrections without the
possibility of parole, plus an additional 45 years for the murder of William Jones, a 39-year-old man
from Chickamauga.
The evidence, presented to Superior Court Judge Don W. Thompson over a 3-day bench trial,
showed that William Jones’ mother arrived at her son’s house to pick him up for an appointment and
found his burned body inside the home on March 14, 2025. Portions of Jones’ residence had been set on
fire, and several items, including Jones’ cell phone, were missing. It was later determined that Jones had
been murdered by a gunshot to his head. Several hours after Jones’ body was found, a family fishing in
Chattanooga near Booker T. Washington State Park located Jones’ cell phone near the bank of the
Tennessee River and contacted Jones’ family from Jones’ phone in an attempt to return it to the owner.
Text messages recovered by law enforcement officers from Jones’ phone revealed that Nicholas
Cheaton was the last person Jones communicated with in the minutes and hours before his murder, and
that Jones had invited Cheaton to his home on the night he was murdered.
Law enforcement officers obtained cell tower records for both Cheaton and Jones’ cellular
devices. The tower records revealed that Cheaton had been at Jones’ house multiple times in the early
morning hours of March 14th. During the first trip, Cheaton shot Jones and took Jones’ cell phone from
the residence. After murdering Jones, Cheaton attempted to send himself several thousand dollars from
Jones’ CashApp account linked to Jones’ phone. Cheaton then left Jones’ residence and traveled back to
the Chattanooga area, where he turned off Jones’ phone and attempted to throw it into the Tennessee
River. However, the phone only landed on the riverbank, where it was located by the fishing group later
that day.
Cheaton then returned to Jones’ residence a second time and stole multiple items from his home,
including electric tools, firearms, and electronic equipment. Cheaton then set fire to Jones’ body and
attempted to set the residence on fire. Cheaton’s Apple iCloud records showed that after the second trip
to Jones’ residence, Cheaton immediately began messaging contacts on his phone trying to sell Jones’
firearms.
Later in the day on March 14th, Cheaton asked a woman to accompany him to a local pawnshop,
where she attempted to pawn several pieces of Jones’ stolen property.Cheaton was apprehended by law enforcement officers on March 21st. When he was arrested,
law enforcement officers discovered he had been driving a rental vehicle during the time of the murder
that was equipped with a GPS tracking device. Law enforcement officers obtained the device, which
showed Cheaton’s whereabouts, and confirmed that he was at Jones’ house multiple times on the night
of the murder, that he had stopped at the area where Jones’ phone was dumped, and that he had been to
the local pawnshop where the stolen items were pawned. After murdering Jones, Cheaton then took a
trip for several days to Daytona Beach, Florida.
At the time of his arrest, DNA was obtained from Cheaton, and it was a match to DNA obtained
from a cigarette left at the crime scene.
On June 3, 2026, Judge Don W. Thompson found Cheaton guilty of the offenses of Malice
Murder, Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault, Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a
Felony, Arson in the First Degree, Concealing the Death of Another, and Possession of a Firearm by
Convicted Felon and immediately sentenced him to serve the remainder of his life in prison without the
possibility of parole, plus an additional 45 years.
From the Office of the District Attorney, “William Jones was a loving son, brother, uncle, and
friend to many. His murder, along with the actions of Nicholas Cheaton after his murder, demonstrates
that evil does exist in this world, and it is personified by this Defendant. The conviction of Cheaton and
this sentence can never bring back what Will’s family lost, but it does ensure that this Defendant will
never again have the chance to do harm in our society. The prosecution of Cheaton was a monumental
effort by the Walker County District Attorney’s Office, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, and the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation.”