Charlton Craig Liner, 62, was sentenced to life in prison on May 12, 2026, after pleading guilty to the January 2025 driveway shooting death of his ex-wife, Karen Liner, a Cleveland, Tennessee, realtor who was on the phone with 911 begging him to stop when she was killed.
Liner entered guilty pleas to first-degree murder, felony murder, and aggravated burglary before a Bradley County Circuit Court judge, avoiding a scheduled trial.
Under Tennessee law, his life sentence carries a minimum of 51 years before he becomes eligible for parole, according to the 10th Judicial District Attorney General's Office. District Attorney General Stephen Hatchett confirmed the sentence following Liner's guilty plea on Monday, according to People.
The killing occurred on the morning of Jan. 27, 2025, at Karen Liner's home on Arthur Lane in Cleveland. Surveillance footage and a 911 recording captured the sequence of events: Karen can be heard telling her ex-husband to get out of her driveway, then pleading, "No, no, Craig, please stop," before multiple gunshots ring out and she goes silent. Officers who responded found her unresponsive in the driveway with a gunshot wound to the head.
After the shooting, Craig Liner drove to a residence on Bluff Drive, where he reportedly exited his vehicle carrying three firearms and said words to the effect of, "It's done. I killed her."
The homeowner identified to the police which gun — a .40-caliber pistol — Liner said he used, and later moved it outside before officers arrived. Liner was taken into custody after police called him and he exited his own home on Bentley Park, where his clothing matched the surveillance footage.
Karen Liner, 51, was a nurse-turned-realtor and mother of two children. Court records show that she and Craig Liner had been married for 23 years before finalizing their divorce in September 2024, citing irreconcilable differences, TrueCrimeSocietyBlog reported.
In the divorce filing, Craig had initially accused Karen of "inappropriate marital conduct," an allegation that was ultimately removed from the final decree.
While held at the Bradley County Jail awaiting trial, Liner was charged with solicitation to commit murder after prosecutors say he attempted to arrange the killing of Karen's mother.
A fellow inmate, William McDaniel, testified that Liner was furious with his former mother-in-law and offered McDaniel a 2017 Malibu boat and an SUV in exchange for carrying out the killing. Investigators seized both the boat and the SUV as evidence after obtaining a search warrant.
As of the time of Liner's guilty plea, that murder-for-hire case had been moving separately through the courts.
District Attorney General Hatchett subsequently confirmed that the separate charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement, following discussions with the victim's family. "After discussing the matter with the victim, it was made part of the agreement to conclude everything," Hatchett stated, as per NewsChannel9.
Originally published on Lawyer Herald
