CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The trial for Kenneth Hudspeth, charged with first-degree murder and aggravated rape in a 25-year-old cold case, got underway this week.
Hudspeth, 50, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree murder in the perpetration of a crime and aggravated rape in the death of 23-year-old Crista Bramlitt, who was found dead in her Clarksville mobile home on Oct. 28, 1996.
The case was reopened in 2019 with the discovery of new DNA evidence, and Hudspeth was a match.
Opening statements
After jury selection wrapped Monday afternoon, District Attorney General Robert Nash began his opening statement detailing the year and a half effort that went into finding a DNA match for evidence that was collected at the scene, comparing DNA for a dozen people who might have been at the scene.
“Case went cold, none of those 12 people matched the male DNA that was left in her body, on her bra and cigarette butts,” Nash said. “After canvassing the mobile home park, run down every lead, no match. Until 2019.”
This was when Clarksville Police Detective Michael Ulrey received a notification from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation requesting DNA from a Kenneth Hudspeth who lived in Arizona in relation to the Bramlitt case.
Ulrey asked for assistance from the Phoenix Police Department, who were able to get a court order. He traveled to collect the DNA from Hudspeth. It came back as a match.
At Hudspeth’s pretrial hearing on July 7, 2020, Ulrey said that when he confronted Hudspeth with the DNA information during the first interview in April 2019, Hudspeth denied having sex with Bramlitt or “doing anything to her,” which Nash reiterated during his opening statement.
This contradicts what John Parker, Hudspeth’s defense attorney, said during his opening statement.
“I’ll submit to you right now that the state’s case is based on nothing but speculation,” Parker said before adding that they are not denying that Hudspeth had sex with Bramlitt.
‘Everybody’s a suspect’
Jeff Pennington, who worked at Sunnydale Mobile Home Park in 1996, discovered Bramlitt’s body. He let himself into her trailer because no one answered, despite that he could hear the TV on.
Bramlitt’s family, who were renting the trailer from Pennington’s family, had asked him to check on her every now and then.
“As you go in the door to the trailer, she was to my left on the floor near the sofa,” Pennington testified. “She was lifeless, nude, looked pretty bad. I told my maintenance man to call the police. I turned around and went back outside.”
Cheryl Anderson, who retired from CPD in 2017, told the jury Hudspeth’s name never came up as a suspect at the time.
“When you have a homicide – and I’m not trying to boomerang your message – and you don’t know who did it, everybody’s a suspect,” Anderson said.
Expert opinion
Michael Tubreville, an expert witness employed at the TBI crime laboratory, is the one who reached out to the Clarksville Police Department with information about a potential match in the CODIS Combined DNA Index System.
“The report requests that a fresh sample be submitted to the lab for verification,” Tubreville said, adding that he then sent that to Ulrey who went to find Hudspeth in Arizona for a new DNA swab. That swab matched DNA from the semen found on the bra, Bramlitt’s vaginal swab and the cigarette butts, Tubreville said.
However, Hudspeth’s DNA was not on the pillow that her blood was found on, which allegedly was used to suffocate her, and his DNA was not found on the knife that also had her blood on it.
Tubreville only confirmed his DNA to be inside of her, on her bra and on the cigarette butts.
‘I hope I didn’t do it’
The state played a video recording of Detective Ulrey’s first interview with Hudspeth in Phoenix after getting his DNA.
“What’s going on, I mean really what’s going on?” Hudspeth could he heard saying to Ulrey. “This don’t make no sense.”
Ulrey told him he was a cold case investigator from Clarksville. He presented Hudspeth with a photo of Bramlitt, and Hudspeth immediately recognized her.
Hudspeth said she lived four trailers down from him, and that a drug dealer in the park took him over to her trailer, where they sat while smoking crack, but it was just one time. Hudspeth originally denied having sex with her.
“Well listen, I’m here to tell you, you had sex with that girl,” Ulrey said to Hudspeth.
His story changed several times about how he knew Bramlitt, when he met her and how he ended up in her trailer. He told Ulrey they he was doing crack with her shortly before the murder, despite toxicology results coming back clean aside from some alcohol.
“I hope I didn’t do it,” Hudspeth could be heard saying.
Ulrey then showed Hudspeth a photo of the way Bramlitt’s body was discovered, where she appears to be laid out with her legs spread. Hudspeth began trying to recall the rest of the night’s details.
Ulrey then started questioning him as to how he remembers other things about the night, yet his memory seems to lapse when it came down to the part where he allegedly had sex with Bramlitt.
“And then when it comes down to the part where she was …”
“Raped and murdered,” Hudspeth said, cutting him off.
“I never said rape,” Ulrey said.
The trial picks up Wednesday morning with the remaining minutes of the April 2019 interview that Ulrey conducted.