Billy Jason Hancock was found guilty of the murder and kidnapping of Jennifer Hughes Cornell a week ago Thursday, as a Putnam County jury deliberated only minutes before returning the verdict.

Hancock, who was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping, first degree murder, felony murder (murder committed in connection with another crime) and abuse of a corpse in the case, had been jailed since Oct. 31, 2008. After a four day criminal court trial in Putnam County, the jury found him guilty on all counts.

Back in the summer and fall of 2008, prosecutors stated Hancock was being pressured by Cornell and the State Child Support office to pay back child support for Cornell and his teenage daughter that he had fathered when they were just teens. Cornell went missing, and Hancock was later arrested and charged in the case.

The trial began on the morning of June 20 with jury selection and then witnesses started taking the stand later that afternoon. District Attorney Randy York and Assistant District Attorney Mark Gore presented to the jury the evidence that had been collected against Hancock.

According to witnesses, Hancock was seen on Vaughn Lane the morning Cornell went missing in a Dodge Ram pickup with stock racks. Cornell didn’t show up for work that morning, and that was when the search began. Cornell’s vehicle was found in the road near her home with the motor still running and her purse and cell phone left behind.

Prosecutors alleged that Hancock kidnapped Cornell and drove her to a remote area in Clay County where Cornell was beaten to death with a five-foot long hickory stick, which had once been a closet rod. Prosecutors then said that her body was found three days later in a sinkhole on Colson Road in Clay County, after massive searches in the Standing Stone Park area of Overton County.

Cornell’s body was found in the sinkhole just off Colson Road by Rick Melton, who was a friend of Hancock and a local known coonhunter. Melton testified that he and Hancock had spoken months prior, and Hancock had told him, “That hole would be a good place to put a body if you ever had to kill someone.”

The prosecution rested its case against Hancock around noon on Thursday, June 23, the fourth day of the trial, after the testimony of several witnesses. Defense attorney Robert Marlow called no defense witnesses, saying that the state had not proven its case against Hancock. Marlow pointed out to the jury in the first phase of the closing arguments that no evidence found in the truck or in his home linked Hancock to the murder.

After closing arguments from both sides, the jury took the case at 3:40 p.m. and signaled at 4:07 p.m. that a verdict had been reached. It only took the jury 27 minutes to find Jason Hancock guilty of the murder of Jennifer Hughes Cornell.