GUILTY TN - Stefany Fairbanks, 42, stabbed to death, Knoxville, 3 May 2015

The trial over the 2015 greenway stabbing death of a Knoxville woman is set to begin Monday.

Timothy Ison will head to court in the murder trial of 42-year-old Stefany Fairbanks. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning.

Police said they do not believe Ison knew Fairbanks when they said he stabber her on Third Creek Greenway back in May 2015.

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Stefany Fairbanks finished work and went for a stroll on the greenway as she did most Sundays, and walked into "a true nightmare scenario," Knox County Deputy District Attorney General Kyle Hixson said during his opening statement Monday.

"He had a thirst to kill and Stefany Fairbanks simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Hixson told a jury seated Monday.

Ison's attorney, Susan Shipley, called the evidence in the case contaminated and untrustworthy in her opening statement.

"The evidence you're going to hear is going to be conflicting," Shipley said. "This was a scene that was total chaos."

Prosecutors are asking for life imprisonment without parole for Ison. Prosecutors note the randomness of Ison's attack as one of the aggravating factors required to seek life without parole. Ison and Fairbanks were strangers.

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Roderick Haynes and his companion Esther Griffith were riding bicycles on the greenway and took note of Fairbanks and Ison as they approached, Hixson said. Ison was "a step behind" Fairbanks, just off her left shoulder, Hixson said.

"He stabbed Stefany Fairbanks 11 times from behind, across the back, across the shoulders," Hixson said. "She was dead in a matter of minutes."

Haynes and Griffith saw Fairbanks run from Ison and collapse. They watched as Ison "stops and looks down at her and then calmly walks away," Hixson said. When Ison realized the bicyclists were watching, he darted into the wooded area.

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Timothy Dwayne Ison was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday in the May 2015 stabbing of a South Knoxville woman on the Third Creek Greenway.

Jurors on Thursday will resume proceedings to determine if Ison will spend the rest of his life behind bars. State law mandates a second hearing for jurors to decide if Ison will be eligible for parole in 51 years or die in prison.

Jurors deliberated for 90 minutes before finding the 26-year-old Ison guilty in the slaying of Stefany Fairbanks.

Prosecutors plan to call five witnesses in the sentencing phase, Knox County Deputy District Attorney said Wednesday. Ison's attorney Susan Shipley said her presentation would take about an hour.

One of the witnesses listed for prosecutors in court files is Judith Cope, who was terrorized in 2004 by a 14-year-old Ison.

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Ison opted not to testify on his own behalf Wednesday after 17 state witnesses testified, but jurors had some of Ison's own words to consider in deliberations.

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Scott Green allowed prosecutors to present 10 pages from Ison's journal found in his West Knoxville apartment.

"I think that even as a child I knew that I would be a predator," one entry states.

"A wolf amongst the sheep. It is who I am, who I was meant to be."

An expert in bodily fluids with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation testified Wednesday she found six spatters of Fairbanks' blood on Ison's shirt, pants and one boot.

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Timothy Dwayne Ison really is a lucky fellow, Knox County Criminal Court Judge Scott Green told him Thursday as he imposed the sentence of life without parole for the 2015 fatal stabbing of a woman on the Third Creek Greenway.

The legally mandated aggravating factors the jury of seven women and five men used to essentially sentence the 26-year-old Ison to die in prison, "also are the same factors that could be used to sentence you to death," the judge said.

"I hope you get yourself figured out and I hope you consider yourself lucky," Green told Ison, who remained just as stoic then as he had throughout the four-day trial.

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"We did not want the death penalty," said Marti Wilson, Fairbanks' aunt. "We don't want him to ever hurt somebody again. We don't want any family to got through this."

Fairbanks' mother, Dylan Fairbanks, did not attend the trial.

"She wanted to, but she's unable to come," Wilson told the jury during victim impact testimony. "Stefany was her best friend,"

Since Fairbanks was killed, family gatherings involve propping her picture on a chair. "Stefany brought the laughter," Wilson said. "Nothing's the same anymore."

Janet Parman, Stefany Fairbanks' younger aunt, also attended the trial. She told jurors Thursday," Everything changed.

"Holidays are not the same and everyday we miss her. No family should have to go through something like this."

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The family released a statement after the trial stating the jury's decision "gives our loss some meaning." The statement expressed gratitude to all the agencies and people involved with solving and prosecuting the slaying. The family signaled out the three witnesses who helped identify Ison, especially Esther Griffith, a nurse who tried to tend to Fairbanks' wounds.

"We are so indebted to her because we are comforted to know a kind person was with Stef as she transitioned," the statement said.

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