Murder trial set to begin

By By Suzanne Monk / managing editor
April 5, 2004
The trial of Joseph Eugene Osborne of Toomsuba was scheduled to begin today in Lauderdale County Circuit Court.
Osborne was charged with murder in the death of 5-year-old Charles C. Hemming-Hopkins in April 2003 five months after the child's body was found in a bedroom at his home on Crabapple Drive.
Then-Deputy Coroner Clayton Cobler said Zyrtec pills, used to treat allergies, were "strewn around him on the bed," but an autopsy revealed no pills in the boy's stomach. The cause of death, Cobler said, was consistent with strangulation.
No one was charged with any crime at that time.
Cindy Hopkins, the child's mother, persuaded investigator Bill East of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office to look into the death. East and Meridian police detectives exhumed Charles Hemming-Hopkins' body and found, they said, evidence that led to Osborne's arrest.
A Lauderdale County grand jury indicted Osborne for murder in July 2003, alleging that he held his hand over the child's nose and mouth until he died.
Thirty-six-year-old Osborne has been variously described as a person who did some work for the family and as Cindy Hopkins' boyfriend. No motive for the alleged murder has been discussed publicly.
Meridian attorney Gary Jones represents Osborne, who has been free on $250,000 bond since early January 2003.