A Christian County Circuit Court judge has ruled to allow a Hopkinsville man charged with manslaughter in connection to the death of DeAndre Palmer to withdraw his guilty plea as part of an agreement with the Commonwealth.
At a hearing in October, Ted Shouse who represents Dequavion James argued his client didn’t understand that when he accepted the plea offer the sentence would run consecutively instead of concurrently due to some discrepancy with the plea agreement document. As part of the resolution, the recommended sentence was 30-years with James becoming eligible for parole after serving at least 20 years.
Judge Atkins announced the sentencing hearing had been vacated for Wednesday. He said the Commonwealth had explained to the court that perhaps there was some evidence of potential prejudice in the guilty plea that was entered.
click to download audioJudge Atkins set a pretrial conference for January 5th at 10:30 a.m.
James was initially charged with murder which was amended to manslaughter as part of the plea deal. He is accused of shooting DeAndre Palmer who was 19-years old at the time. Police said James and Leonardo Miller fatally shot Palmer at Miller’s home in Oak Grove and then hid his body in a closet. According to police, Palmer’s body was eventually dumped on the side of Carter Road near Ghost Bridge in July 2016.
Earlier this month, Miller entered a guilty plea as part of a plea agreement with the Commonwealth on charges of murder, first-degree robbery, tampering with physical evidence, and theft. He was sentenced to 40-years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 12th.
