TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Aug 12, 2025

Nashville’s longest serving criminal court judge died Aug. 11 at the age of 87, The Tennessean reports. Judge J. Randall Wyatt Jr. spent 43 years serving the judicial system, including eight years as a general sessions court judge and then as a criminal court judge. He retired in 2017. Two years later, his portrait was unveiled at the Justice A.A. Birch Building in front of family, friends and colleagues. While working as a Nashville Metro police officer, Wyatt studied at Middle Tennessee State University and then Vanderbilt University Law School. After receiving his law degree, Wyatt became an FBI special agent in Detroit. He later returned to Nashville and became an assistant district attorney, a legal advisor to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and then was elected as a general sessions judge. Funeral arrangements have not been announced yet.