BIG SPRING, TX — After a 6-day trial, Colten Hughes chose to be sentenced by a jury. He received 70 years in prison and a $10,000 fine in the murder of his grandmother 67-year-old Leah Hughes of Big Spring. Hughes will be credited for the period he’s served in detention and the $10,000 fine will be distributed to the State of Texas and Howard County.
During sentencing, Kara Crenshaw, Leah’s daughter, was called to the stand to testify during the sentencing portion of the trial. While on stand, multiple family photos of Leah or “Mimi” were shared with the jury. Many were photos with her grandkids on trips, at sporting events, fishing at her residence, and during the Christmas time in 2023. The photos reflected a vibrant and active woman who was very involved in the lives of her family.
Throughout the trial, there had been many people in the gallery, many seemed to be family members. Today, the room was so full that multiple people stood along the wall in the back. When sentencing was read, the room had little to no reaction as the gallery had been instructed by presiding judge the Honorable Shane Seaton to contain emotions as best as possible, just as he had instructed for the duration of this trial.
This case was prosecuted by District Attorney Joshua Hamby, 1st Assistant District Attorney Erika Nielsen, and Assistant District Attorney Dennis Jones. The defense attorney was Scott Layh.
Hamby told KBest News this was a very long and difficult case with more evidence in this case than they’ve ever had. It took months to sort through the evidence and to organize it in a way to present at trial.
“This what we call [a] circumstantial evidence case. It means we didn’t have any live witnesses to the murder itself, and so our evidence was primarily electronic – either video, Wi-Fi, [or] phone tracking. It took experts to help us decipher that data. Also, we had to hire experts to go through the financial records to determine the amount of money that was stolen by the defendant in the course of the last few years, and because the amount of the money stolen, it is what we believe is the motive for the actual murder itself,” said Hamby.
When asked what kind of message was sent by the jury, Nielsen stated, “I think the jurors were in a very emotional situation where you’re asking 12 standard individuals to decide the fate of another person from their community and they obviously landed on the upper end of the available range. I think they did their best to weigh the circumstances and decide what message they wanted to send to the citizens of Howard County and I think they made their message pretty clear that they won’t tolerate having murderers in our community.”
Colten Hughes will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years of his sentence, however, Nielsen advised that just because he is eligible does not mean that it will occur. That will be a decision for the parole board.
(courtesy photo)
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