Another sentenced in connection with October stabbing

Newton resident Courtney Patricia Hummel was sentenced late last week to spend a year in jail after pleading guilty to an aggravated misdemeanor charge in connection with an incident that resulted in the stabbing death of a local teenager. Judge Thomas W. Mott ordered 18-year-old Hummel to pay a $625 fine in addition to being incarcerated for a year. She was charged with accessory after the fact in June and pleaded guilty in July after forming a plea agreement with Jasper County Attorney’s Office. Hummel was among three local residents charged with accessory after the fact in connection with the murder of Jerry Alden Pittman II, who was found beaten and stabbed 29 times Oct. 6, 2007, outside his parents’ residence at 714 W. Third St. S. in Newton. During an investigation, authorities determined Hummel had gone with four others — Tyler Ray Oberhart, Justin Alan Robuck, Ray Robert Travis and Mishana Laura Cornejo — in her car to Pittman’s residence, where the three boys intended to confront Pittman for cheating Oberhart in a drug exchange earlier that evening and either assault him or take money or drugs from him. Hummel also left the scene with the four after the boys returned and confessed Pittman was likely dead, and she assisted in cleaning blood evidence from her vehicle. Hummel testified during Oberhart’s first-degree murder trial, stating Oberhart and Robuck both claimed to have stabbed Pittman during the altercation in his back yard. The jury found Oberhart guilty of first-degree murder, and the 18-year-old faces mandatory life imprisonment. He will be sentenced Oct. 6. Travis pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree robbery and was sentenced last week to be incarcerated for 10 years. He will be eligible for parole after seven years. Cornejo also has pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact as part of an agreement with the county attorney’s office and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 20. Robuck will stand trial for first-degree murder in late September in Dallas County. Chadwick Ramsey Forbes, 20, of Newton also has been charged with accessory after the fact in connection with the case, and he also faces a class C felony charge of conspiracy to commit robbery. Forbes has no court appearances scheduled at this time.

Mandi Lamb can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 424 or via e-mail at mlamb@newtondailynews.com.