The girlfriend of a man convicted in the February 2020 murder of Sean Moss has been granted judicial diversion.
JohnBeth Holland will not have to do jail time if she does not get into further trouble for a specified period.
Kaleb Cox previously pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and received a 15- year sentence in the case in which the victim was taken to Prentice Cooper State Park and his body burned.
Cox is currently serving his time in the TDOC.
He alleged that he acted in self defense.
Prosecutor Andrew Coyle said the proof in a hearing before Judge Barry Steelman on Wednesday showed that Ms. Holland was contacted by Cox after the homicide and was asked to follow him in her vehicle while he drove the victim's car to Prentice Cooper. Once they arrived, he asked Ms. Holland to park while he took the victim's vehicle further up the road. He then set it on fire.
Ms. Holland was charged with tampering with evidence, two counts of abuse of a corpse, and accessory after the fact.
She earlier pled guilty to tampering and one count of abuse of a corpse with the sentence to be determined by Judge Steelman. She was diversion eligible and was able to ask the judge to consider diversion. One count of abuse of a corpse and the accessory charge were dismissed by the state as part of the plea.
A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation detective testified that Cox maintained that he was alone when he shot Moss over a drug dispute, put the body in the victim's own car and drove it to Prentice Cooper, where he set the car on fire.
The detective said Ms. Holland’s car, a Volkswagen Jetta registered in her mother’s name, was recorded on the park’s security cams entering the park behind Moss’s red Toyota sedan at about 3 a.m., and leaving alone at about 4 a.m. The car returned to the scene at about 7 a.m. later that morning.
The detective said Ms. Holland had bought two jugs of Purex laundry detergent with bleach at about 10:30 the morning of the murder, detailed on a dated receipt from Walgreens on Highway 153, near Red Bank. But Ms. Holland’s lawyer, Samuel Hudson, said the jugs or traces of detergent were never found at Cox’s Red Bank home on Delashmitt Road, and he did not reference Ms. Holland in his statements about cleaning his home after the murder.
Defense attorney Hudson said cell phone tower records placed Ms. Holland near McMinnville at the time of the murder. She may not have come home at all that night, he said. If she did drive her car to Prentice Cooper, she may not have known that Moss’s body was in the Toyota, as it was covered in towels, he claimed.
In an emotional statement, the victim's brother, Chase Moss, said that Sean Moss saw the good in everyone. He told Ms. Holland that she and Cox “took advantage of his kindness.” The witness was escorted from the courtroom when it became clear he was becoming more agitated, cursing and talking over Judge Steelman.
Moss’s mother, Martha, read a victim impact statement detailing that the Moss family and friends believe Ms. Holland was involved with the entire murder, start to finish.
“I really do hope that you are haunted by the images,” she said. “These crimes couldn’t have been committed without your help.”
She said Ms. Holland’s silence allowed Cox’s first-degree murder charge to be downgraded to voluntary manslaughter.
“Johnbeth, you helped destroy important evidence,” she said.
The room was tearful as Ms. Moss referenced a second-grade essay in which her son said he wanted to be a dad when he grew up, while she noted that Cox became a father as he walked free in the four years between the murder and his sentencing.
After hearing the proof, impact statements by the family, and the Ms. Holland's testimony, Judge Steelman sentenced Ms. Holland to:
Tampering with evidence - judicial diversion was granted, seven years suspended to state probation,
Abuse of a corpse - judicial diversion was granted, five years suspended to state probation.