Richmond mother convicted in baby's death seeking new trial
RICHMOND, Ind. — A decade after she was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the starvation death of her three-month-old son, a Richmond woman is pursuing a new trial.
A Wayne County jury in February 2013 found Amy R. Hockett guilty of murder and neglect of a dependent.
Khaiden Dwight Michael Lee Hockett-Pierson died on Feb. 5, 2012. Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Shipman said during the trial the baby had weighed more than eight pounds at birth, the previous November, but was only six pounds when he died.
The infant's cause of death was determined to be dehydration due to starvation. Emergency responders who viewed the baby called him "very, very, very, very skinny," with "dry and leathery" skin.
Hockett and the baby's father, co-defendant Joseph Pierson, had three older children. A court document would describe the family's home as "dim, filthy and messy, with trash overflowing, clothing and dog feces on the floor... and feces smeared on the walls and windows."
Testimony at her trial reflected Hockett ingested heroin in the weeks after Khaiden's birth. The judge who sentenced her, Gregory Horn, found she showed "a complete lack or remorse amounting to disdain or recalcitrance."
In a petition for post-conviction relief filed in recent weeks, Hockett — who is now 32 — claims her convictions came as a result of "ineffective (assistance) of counsel, media misuse, judicial misconduct" and a refusal to grant her a change of venue.
The Richmond woman wrote that "publicity (concerning her case) was so bad that I had to be taken to (and) from the courthouse by vehicle in a bulletproof vest."
She also alleged Judge Horn "has a bias against (drug) addicts."
A hearing on her petition is set for May 1.
The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld Hockett's conviction in February 2014.
Incarcerated at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis, Hockett has a projected release date in April 2041, when she would be 50 years old.
The same Wayne County jury that convicted Hockett found Joseph Pierson guilty, but mentally ill, of charges including neglect of a dependent resulting in death. He was later sentenced to 37 years in prison.
Now 35, Pierson is incarcerated at the Westville Correctional Facility, and has a projected release date in August 2031.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Mother convicted in Richmond baby's death pursuing a new trial
