Brittney Jackson and Jaylon Hobson are under prison sentences that took effect November 3 after guilty pleas connected to the 2023 death of 4-year-old Sequoia Samuels.
FOX13 Memphis reported Thursday that Jackson pleaded guilty to three of seven charges and Hobson to four of seven. Both were assigned to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, and Jackson is to serve her sentences in state prison.
What the Pleas Left Standing
Jackson's first-degree murder charge was reduced to second-degree murder under her plea agreement. Four of her seven charges were dropped.
Hobson's first-degree murder charge was among three counts dropped under his agreement. The pleas closed a case that began with a missing-child report in June 2023, without a trial on the original murder accusations.
The Prison Terms
Jackson was sentenced to 30 years for second-degree murder and 30 years for aggravated child abuse of a child under age 6. She also received two years for abuse of a corpse.
Hobson was sentenced to 10 years for solicitation of first-degree murder, six years for tampering with or fabricating evidence, and four years for filing a false offense report. He received two years for abuse of a corpse.
FOX13 reported that the sentences were to take effect November 3. The available account lists each term separately and does not describe how the counts are stacked against one another.
The June 2023 Report
Sequoia was 4 and died in June 2023, according to earlier FOX13 Memphis reporting. WREG reported that police said Jackson reported her missing from their home on Caldwell on the morning of June 15, 2023.
Investigators found the child's body in a trash can near the apartment, WREG reported. Jackson told investigators Sequoia had been dead for weeks and that her body had been kept in garbage bags inside the house.
A Case That Stretched Past a Year
By July 3, 2024, more than a year after Sequoia's death, Action News 5 reported that Shelby County prosecutors and Jackson's defense were still waiting on the finalized autopsy. That report placed the case in North Memphis.
The guilty pleas now fix the criminal outcome that reporting described: Jackson admitted second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse, and Hobson admitted solicitation of first-degree murder along with evidence and reporting offenses. Their state sentences took effect November 3.
