Caitlyn Kaufman’s killer gets maximum 25 year prison sentence
The Nashville, Tenn., man convicted in the December 2020 murder of Butler County native Caitlyn Kaufman was sentenced Wednesday, March 29, to 25 years in prison.
DeVaunte Hill, 23, was convicted in January in Nashville of second-degree murder and received the maximum prison sentence.
A second suspect, James Cowan, 29, who was driving the car from which Hill fired at least six gunshots in the Dec. 3, 2020, road-rage incident that left Kaufman dead, was acquitted earlier by a jury following a four-day trial in Davidson County Court. The jury deliberated for two days before rendering verdicts for Hill and Cowan.
Kaufman, of Chicora, was 26. She was driving to St. Thomas West Hospital in Nashville, where she worked as an intensive care nurse, when Hill shot her. She was found dead in her vehicle along Interstate 440 several hours after the shooting after she didn’t arrive for work.
Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton, who presided over the trial, held a sentencing hearing earlier this month, and issued the sentence Wednesday.
Dalton outlined mitigating and enhancement factors that she considered in deciding the length of Hill’s sentence.
The enhancement factors were that Hill has a history of criminal convictions, he was a leader in the commission of an offense involving two or more people, he treated or allowed Kaufman to be treated with exceptional cruelty during the commission of an offense, he possessed or employed a firearm during the commission of the offense, and he was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile for acts that would have constituted a felony if they had been committed by an adult.
The mitigating factors were that Hill lacked substantial judgment in committing the offense, and he committed the offense under such unusual circumstances that it is unlikely that a sustained intent to violate the law motivated the criminal conduct.
In her order, Dalton said she found that the enhancement factors were applicable to the length of the sentence, but none of the mitigating factors applied.
Dalton denied a request by Hill’s attorney for her to consider the remorse Hill expressed during the sentencing hearing as a mitigating factor.
In her response, Dalton wrote: “There was no evidence presented at trial that indicated Mr. Hill’s cooperation in the investigation of this case that would tend to show his concern or remorse for his conduct. To the contrary, days after the shooting death of Ms. Kaufman, Mr. Hill attended a birthday party for his co-defendant.”
Dalton also noted that Hill was not forthcoming about the circumstances of the shooting in his interview with detectives, and evidence from phone calls he made from jail showed his intent to thwart the investigation by colluding with others to intimidate a witness.
