Andrew Billings has been sentenced to 18 years for the attempted murder of his wife plus a 12 year term after entering a plea to initiation of a process of manufacture methamphetamine in a separate case. The two sentences are to run consecutively for a total of 30 years. Billings must serve at least 30% of the term before he is eligible for parole and he has been given credit for time already served. Billings is also to pay a fine of $52,000 including $50,000 for the attempted first degree murder and $2,000 for the meth offense.

The hearing, conducted by Judge Gary McKenzie on Monday, was closed to the public under a Tennessee Supreme Court order which applies to all courts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Billings stood trial on the attempted first degree murder charge and was found guilty by a jury panel of seven men and five women on August 14, 2019. Along with the guilty verdict, the jury assessed a $50,000 fine.

Since his conviction, Billings has been behind bars in the Robertson County Jail. He will now be transferred to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

Billings was accused of slitting the throat of his wife, Adriana with a long kitchen knife before leaving her by the side of Allen Ferry Road in the Ragland Bottom area on April 4, 2017.

Although Billings did not deny the knife attack, his defense was that he was on meth at the time and that he took out his rage on Adriana thinking she had turned over to authorities a recording of a statement he made implicating himself in a meth case.