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.
Amy R. Hockett, a Wayne County jury found her guilty in February 2013 of murder and neglecting a dependent.
Khaiden Michael Lee Hockett–Pierson was killed on February 5, 2012. Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Shipman claimed that the baby had been more than eight pounds in weight at birth, the previous November, but that he was just six when he passed away.
The infant died of starvation and dehydration. Emergency responders who examined the infant described him as “very skinny” with “dry, leathery” skin.
Hockett had three children with Joseph Pierson, the baby’s father. According to a court document, the home was described as “dim and filthy, with trash overflowing and clothing and dog feces all over the floor… and feces all over the walls and windows.”
At her trial, testimony revealed that Hockett had taken heroin within the first weeks following Khaiden’s birth. Gregory Horn, the judge who sentenced her found that she displayed “a complete lack of remorse amounting t disdainful 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.
Richmond woman wrote that her “publicity (concerning the case) was so terrible that I had been taken to (and from) the courthouse by vehicle in my bulletproof vest.”
She also claimed Judge Horn had a bias against drug addicts.
A hearing is scheduled for May 1 to hear her petition.
Hockett’s conviction was upheld by the Indiana Court of Appeals in February 2014.
Hockett is currently imprisoned at Indiana Women’s Prison, Indianapolis. Her release date is April 2041. She would have been 50 years old.
Joseph Pierson, a Wayne County jury convicted Hockett of Hockett’s murder, was found guilty but mentally ill on charges that included neglect of a dependent leading to death. He was sentenced to 37 year imprisonment.
Pierson, now 35, is currently in Westville Correctional Facility. His release date is August 2031.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at [email protected].
