Year per member of victim’s family
A Lumberton man received a 15-year sentence Tuesday afternoon — one year for each immediate family member of the Foxworth woman he killed while driving drunk.
Judy Hilburn, a 59-year-old Walmart cashier, died in 2017 when Hunter Nelson’s truck struck the SUV she and her husband, Ronald, were in on U.S. 98 in Columbia.
Although Nelson had faced up to 25 years, Circuit Judge Claiborne “Buddy” McDonald told him the compassion of Hilburn’s family led to the lesser sentence.
“I want you to know that when it first happened, we wanted nothing but the max sentence for you,” Hilburn’s daughter Karen Taylor told Nelson, who did not look her way as she spoke. “But my mother, as I’ve said before, loved everyone and I believe she would have wanted us to show you Jesus’ love. I prayed and prayed about what to do and it came to me that you should serve one year for each immediate member of mom’s family. I pray you think of and consider their pain and loss. I will pray for your family, as I know they have suffered as well. I know you will only serve a fraction of 15 years, although you deserve more.”
Nelson, 24, will serve 7.5 years after pleading guilty to aggravated DUI as part of the plea bargain.
Taylor testified from a podium inside a courtroom at the Marion County Courthouse and described Hilburn as a mother, wife, grandmother of four, daughter, sister and friend to many.
“On Jan. 27, 2017, our lives changed forever,” she said. “I know you know first-hand what happened, but I think it is important you know our side, not just yours.”
Taylor said she and her husband had invited her parents to dinner that night.
“While waiting I was reading Facebook and I saw a post and told my husband, ‘There’s been a really bad wreck,’” she said. “The moment I said that, my phone rang. I answered it and it was a dear friend of my mother’s and she asked, ‘Are your parents OK?’ She told me that they were the ones in the wreck. I dropped my phone and told my huband we had to go. During the ride I prayed, ‘Please don’t let it be bad. Please don’t let my dad be hurt more than he already is.’ I prayed and prayed, ‘Please dear God let everything be OK.’”
Nelson stood silently and motionless as Taylor told the entire story of the night.
“A lady came out and said she needed to speak to me and brought me into a room by myself,” Taylor continued. “The words will forever be etched in my mind. ‘Mrs. Judy didn’t make it.’ ‘No! No! No!’ I said. She replied, ‘She’s gone … she died.’ I heard nothing else at the moment but my own screams over and over. I couldn’t stop. I fell to the floor and I remember saying a prayer for my dad. I never imagined I would lose my mother.”
Taylor said she worried all the way to Hattiesburg where her father had been transported. She said she found out he was OK, but he didn’t know he had lost his wife.
“He kept asking me to go check on his baby,” Taylor said. “I couldn’t bare the words to tell him. I didn’t know how to tell him. I stood beside my dad and held his hand as my brother said, ‘Daddy, mama’s gone.’ I will never forget his cries.”
Judge McDonald also addressed Nelson as he sentenced him.
“It was all based on a poor choice at the time,” he said. “The victim’s family told the District Attorney’s Office they wanted input on your sentencing. Their attitude was not to seek revenge but to seek justice.
“This sentence will one day result in you getting out of prison. You can do a lot with your life. Try to make an effort to share what happened and what happened to your family. This will give you an opportunity to analyze and review your life and your future. The sentence you got could have been a lot harsher, but they (prosecutors) bent over backwards to have a say. That operated to your benefit.”
District Attorney Hal Kittrell took a moment to address Hilburn’s family and then spoke about the case.
“I’ve never seen such compassion and forgiveness as I’ve seen from this family,” he said. “We honored the request of the family simply because we believe it’s a healing process for them. We honor what they say and we respect what they say. We believe this is what they need. We heard her say the 15 years was for each of the family members, so in my mind it makes sense. Certainly we wanted to make sure to honor that.
“We could tell that the court was perhaps a little taken back by the plea offer, but I think once he heard from the family and their justification and logic for it, he recognized that it is a healing process for them. He respected that and he respected their recommendation just as we respected their recommendation. As I told them, I just pray God’s peace and comfort on the family.”
Pictured Above: Hunter Nelson turns Tuesday to be led away by Marion County Constable Robbie Gill after being sentenced in circuit court. He’ll serve 7.5 years in the 2017 death of Judy Hilburn of Foxworth, who was a cashier at Walmart in Columbia. | Photo by Mark Rogers
