MADISONVILLE, Tenn. — A Monroe County judge found probable cause Tuesday morning to send a murder case on to the grand jury for review against a convicted felon who authorities say plotted an October killing to get insurance money.
Nicholas W. Hamlett has been held for months in the killing of Steven D. Lloyd, a Knoxville man who was found dead at the base of a waterfall in the Cherokee National Forest. Hamlett, who is being held without bond, faced a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Monroe County.
The case gained national notoriety because Hamlett faked a phone call in connection with the killing, calling 911 and claiming he’d been hurt while being chased by a bear in woods near the Cherohala Skyway, authorities said. His plan was to have authorities find Lloyd’s body and assume it was a Montana man named Brandon Andrade, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office…