'I felt bad for following orders': Man gets 30 years for shooting passenger on I-71 in NKY

An Alabama man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for fatally shooting a passenger while driving on Interstate 71 in Northern Kentucky last year.

Boone County Circuit Court Judge James R. Schrand handed down the sentence to 33-year-old Tommy Hightower, who pleaded guilty to a single count of murder in May, court records show.

Hightower, of Jasper, Alabama, called 911 just after 8:30 a.m. on June 3, 2021 to report the shooting, according to the Boone County Sheriff's Office. Dispatchers then directed Hightower to pull off the highway at the Verona exit and into a gas station.

Investigators discovered Hightower had shot his passenger, 36-year-old Girlis Serratt, also of Jasper, Alabama, as they were traveling southbound on the highway, officials with the sheriff's office said shortly after the incident.

Hightower and Serratt were traveling from Alabama to Michigan to visit friends, officials said, adding the trip was cut short and both men decided to seek out work in Greater Cincinnati. 

Preceding the shooting, the two men were arguing because Hightower wanted to remain in the area for work and Serratt wanted to return home to Alabama, the sheriff's office said. They were the only occupants of the pickup they were traveling in.

Serratt was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where he died of his injuries, officials said.

The sheriff's office said Hightower surrendered to deputies without incident. In court documents, prosecutors said Hightower told police "he was ordered to shoot his friend 'Scooter.'"

"He (Scooter) told me to. I said – he wanted it to end. He didn’t have no place to go, didn’t have no home...and he said thank you and I felt bad for following orders," prosecutors quoted Hightower as saying to police. 

Prosecutors requested that Hightower undergo a competency evaluation, court records show. He was referred to the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center and ultimately was found competent to stand trial in January.