Thursday, September 19, 2013
The man accused in the 2011 shooting death of Marion County resident Kenneth Hudson pleaded guilty Wednesday in Criminal Court to homicide charges, officials said.
According to Marion County Circuit Court records, Jarrod Pickett, 26 when he was arrested Feb. 9, 2011, pleaded guilty to reduced charges of reckless homicide, a class D felony. Pickett was originally charged with first-degree murder.
Pickett also pleaded guilty to charges of promotion of methamphetamine manufacturing, records show. Pickett gained that charge this year.
Circuit Court Judge Thomas Graham sentenced Pickett on Wednesday to a combined 12 years in prison on the two, unrelated counts, records show.
Pickett was charged with shooting Hudson, 50, in the head as the two men and a 17-year-old juvenile girl rode along Shellmound Road in Hudson's pickup truck on Feb. 7, 2011, according to testimony in a 2011 preliminary hearing. Hudson's body was left along the roadside as Pickett fled. Pickett was taken into custody in Chattanooga a couple of days later.