A Yolo County jury has convicted a 33-year-old Woodland man in connection with the 2005 murder of his mother-in-law.
Eric Joseph Hudson was convicted Tuesday on second-degree murder, personal use of a weapon in the commission of a felony and first-degree burglary for the slaying of his mother-in-law, Yvonne Powell, according to a press release from the Yolo County District Attorney's Office.
Hudson faces a maximum of 22 years to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for April 22, the release said.
On July 14, 2005, Hudson went to her home on Fourth Street. He and the victim argued and he used an expandable baton to club her several times in the head, the release said. He then locked the door and left her to die, the release said.
Hudson and his wife, Amy, had been living in a house Powell owned until a few weeks before the murder.
The Hudsons had moved out of the home because of a strained relationship with Powell and they were living out of their car, the release said.
In the week after the murder, Amy Hudson disposed of the clothing that her husband was wearing at the time of the murder by tossing it into trash bins and along the highway between Woodland and Yuba City. She also disassembled the weapon and threw it into irrigation canals, the release said.
Powell's body wasn't found until a week later on July 21 when officers performed a welfare check. Eric Joseph Hudson was at the Woodland Memorial Hospital where he had been treated since July 18 for self-inflicted wounds from apparent suicide attempts, the release said.
Amy Hudson was sentenced Oct. 10 to three years of probation and one year in county jail for her conviction of being an accessory after the fact, the release said.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.