Cold Case Homicide Revival Leads to Murder Charges in Dyersburg

A Dyersburg homicide that had gone cold for nearly five years is back in the criminal justice system, after investigators revived the October 2, 2021 shooting death of 26-year-old Keaston Akins and secured first-degree murder charges against Jabrell Gauldin and Josh Livingston. The arrests, made with help from the U.S. Marshals Service, mark the strongest move yet in a case that had sat dormant before detectives went back through the original file and pushed the investigation forward with new work.

Police responded to the shooting on Roberts Avenue at about 4:42 p.m. that day and found Akins in a ditch. Officers tried lifesaving measures at the scene, but the shooting became part of a violent weekend in Dyersburg that also included two other shooting incidents. Investigators collected 19 shell casings from the scene, and Chief Steve Isbell later blasted the silence from people who saw what happened, calling the lack of cooperation from eyewitnesses “beyond reprehensible.”

What changed was the investigation itself. Dyersburg police said detectives reviewed prior evidence again, gathered supplemental evidence, and carried out additional investigative steps, including multiple search warrants. That renewed effort ended with a Dyer County grand jury indictment and the arrests of Gauldin and Livingston, both of Dyersburg. The move from a stalled file to formal first-degree murder charges suggests investigators developed enough new material to turn the case from a cold homicide into an active prosecution.

Akins’s obituary listed his birth date as February 16, 1995, and identified him as Keaston “Kebo” Akins of Dyersburg. His funeral was held at Tabernacle Baptist Church, with burial at Memorial Park Cemetery. Tennessee’s first-degree murder charge carries the state’s harshest penalties, including death, life without the possibility of parole, or life imprisonment, underscoring how seriously this case is now being treated.

The case also highlights the role of persistence in homicide work. For Akins’s family, the renewed investigation means the 2021 killing did not disappear into the backlog. For Dyersburg police, the charges show the file is still open, still active, and now moving through the courts with two men facing the state’s most serious murder count.