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Cellmate testifies that Hubbard told him he planned the shooting
By Tom Smith
The Times-Daily
TUSCUMBIA — A man who was in the same Colbert County Jail cell with Thomas Hubbard said Friday that Hubbard told him step by step how Ki-Jana Freeman was set up and killed.
“(Hubbard) said (De’Vontae) Bates contacted KJ on Facebook, said he wanted to buy some drugs,” Shawn Settles said Friday during Hubbard’s capital murder trial. “(Hubbard) said it was a setup to kill KJ. He said he couldn’t let him get away with stealing from him.”
Hubbard, 33, 1100 Midland Ave., Muscle Shoals is accused of being the person who planned and orchestrated the shooting death of Freeman after someone broke into his residence.
Freeman and a friend, Tyler Blythe, 19, of Tuscumbia, who was 17 at the time, were both shot March 1, 2016, while sitting inside Freeman’s blue Ford Mustang.
Freeman died at Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield, while Blythe was flown to Huntsville Hospital. He testified Friday in the trial.
Settles said his attorney had reached an agreement with the district attorney’s office to reduce his sentence for his testimony in the case.
Settles testified that he befriended Hubbard and Hubbard confided in him while they were cellmates.
He said Hubbard admitted he was in the truck with Peter Capote, Benjamin Young and Trey Hamm when the shooting took place in the parking lot of Spring Creek Apartments.
“He said Capote and Young got out and did the shooting,” Settles said.
He said Hubbard told him “they got out, walked towards the car and unloaded on it.”
Defense attorney David Bradley, who along with Jamy Poss and Charlton Pope represent Hubbard, asked Settles how he knew Hubbard was telling the truth.
“I believed him. He told me what happened. I believed he killed that boy,” Settles said.
The trial continues Monday at 9 a.m. in Colbert County Circuit Judge Jackie Hatcher’s courtroom.
http://www.timesdaily.com/news/crime...7f5d79a17.html
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