CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – On day five of the Kenneth Hudspeth trial, the 50-year-old was convicted by the jury on first and second degree murder charges in the death of 23-year-old Crista Bramlitt in 1996.
Hudspeth was found guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree murder in perpetration of a crime and two counts of aggravated rape.
The verdict comes after four days of testimony from experts, investigators and Hudspeth himself. The 25-year-old case was reopened in 2019 after a DNA match was made, placing Hudspeth at the scene.
The verdict was delivered just after 11:30 a.m. Friday after the jury deliberated for four hours Thursday and just over two hours Friday morning.
State’s closing arguments
Before closing arguments were made on Thursday, the jury was given detailed instructions as to how they could find Hudspeth on the four counts he was charged with. These included first-degree murder, first-degree murder in perpetration of a felony and two counts of aggravated rape.
Nash started with dispelling Hudspeth’s claim that one of the reasons he lied to Ulrey during the April 2019 interview was that he was nervous and scared.
He replayed the first four minutes of Hudspeth’s interview, in which he could be heard making small talk with the Phoenix police officers and even noting the day’s weather.
“As soon as he was confronted with law enforcement, he was reaching out to shake their hand, having conversation about how he broke his wrist. Just casual conversation with these people,” Nash said.
Nash then went into Hudspeth’s testimony, in which he admitted he lied, but was telling the truth Wednesday on the witness stand.
“The only reason to lie about having sex with her (Bramlitt), about telling this very story two and a half years ago – the only reason he doesn’t tell Detective Ulrey that then – is because he knew he left her like this,” Nash said while holding up the photo of the way Bramlitt’s body was discovered.
He then again mentioned how Hudspeth claimed Bramlitt was smoking crack cocaine with him the night of her death, despite her toxicology coming back clean.
“Such elaborate deception and manipulation,” Nash then said about Hudspeth’s story before going into a hypothetical where Hudspeth could be found not guilty.
“Mr. Hudspeth’s had sex, that’s all fine for however long it was. Low and behold, there’s somebody else out there, who – we don’t know, still don’t know – who came in, left no trace of semen in her, did these littlest slices on her neck for whatever reason and then suffocated her and gone in the wind.”
He called that theory absurd.
“Can your mind rest easy believing anything Mr. Hudspeth told you?” Nash said towards the end of his statement before asking the jury to find Hudspeth guilty on all counts.
Defense
In his closing statements, Hudspeth’s defense attorney John Parker told the jury that the video footage of the interview conducted in Phoenix in April of 2019 did not show the moments leading up to when police placed him in the interview room.
“I don’t even know if that video exists but we didn’t see it,” Parker said about the reasons as to why Hudspeth might have been scared and nervous, leading him to lie to Ulrey.
He then said there was nothing to back up the state’s theory that Hudspeth held a knife to Bramlitt’s throat, causing the small lesions in her skin.
“That is nothing but speculation, just like the entire case, that’s all it is,” Parker said.
He brought up that no one knows what happened from the time that Hudspeth left Bramlitt’s trailer, which Hudspeth claimed was around 7 or 8 p.m. that evening, until her body was discovered the next day around 1 p.m.
“I never heard once a time of death (for Bramlitt) stated,” Parker continued.
Parker took up each testimony that the jury heard. When he got to Cheryl Anderson, a retired homicide investigator with the Clarksville Police Department who testified Monday, he mentioned her statement that the hairs collected from atop Bramlitt’s body were never tested for DNA.
“Where are they now? I have no idea. Were they sent to the lab? Have no idea,” Parker said.
He also repeated the experts’ findings that Hudspeth’s DNA was not conclusively found on the pillow allegedly used to suffocate Bramlitt or on the knife that cut her throat.
“I don’t know how much more reasonable doubt there can be then that,” Parker said before reiterating that while Hudspeth did lie to Ulrey about having sex with Bramlitt initially, he was not lying on the witness stand Wednesday.
The verdict
The courtroom was still as the jury foreperson read the verdicts. While finding Hudspeth not guilty on the count of first-degree murder, the jury did return a guilty verdict for the lesser-included charge of second-degree murder.
Judge Robert E. Lee Davies then revoked the bond that had been set for Hudspeth after his arrest in 2019.
“Of course I’m pleased that we could get justice for Crista Bramlitt after this long delay,” Nash told Clarksville Now.
“I mean this is nothing really to be happy about,” he continued in noting the overall tragedy of the case.
“We’re obviously not happy with it, and we’ll do what we have to after this,” Parker said before adding that they were planning to appeal the case.
On Tuesday, Hudspeth’s mother Rose told Clarksville Now that there was no way her son could have committed the crimes he was accused of.
She and her daughter Melinda, Hudspeth’s sister, attended the trial all week after traveling from Arkansas.
“There’s just no way he did that,” Rose said, adding that she was praying to God for a positive outcome for her son.
After the verdict was read, Rose called the trial unfair. “None of the evidence pointed to Kenneth,” Rose said.
“He was already deemed guilty by your judicial system before the trial even started,” Melinda added.
Bramlitt’s daughter, who was just 3 years old when her mother was killed, could not attend the trial as she is currently expecting a baby, according to witness coordinator Jemina Clinard.
After the defense waived the 45-day time limit, Hudspeth’s sentencing hearing was set for Dec. 8.