A Morgan County woman charged in 2020 with murder pleaded guilty this week to the lesser included crime of manslaughter, according to court documents filed Thursday.

Mary Evelyn Hamm, 62, was sentenced by Morgan County Circuit Judge Jennifer Howell on Monday — the day her trial was scheduled to begin — to 15 years in prison, less a jail credit of about two years and four months for the time she has been in Morgan County Jail.

Hamm was charged by Decatur police with fatally shooting Bruce Everett Cox at her residence in the Flint community on Oct. 16, 2020. Cox, a Decatur resident, was 54 years old.

In an affidavit at the time of Hamm’s arrest, Decatur Police Detective Sean Mukaddam wrote that “Hamm made spontaneous utterances to responding officers that she shot Cox because she was tired of him attacking her. Hamm was transported to the Decatur Police Department for an interview. Prior to Miranda warning being read, Hamm voluntarily told Detective Mukaddam she shot Cox because he came at her and she was tired of him beating on her.”

Mukaddam “did not see any injuries to Hamm and there were not visible injuries on Cox besides the gunshot wound to the head,” he wrote in the affidavit. “… At this time, there is no evidence to support Cox attacked Hamm prior to the shooting.”

Morgan County Coroner Jeff Chunn said Cox died in a hospital of a single gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m. on Oct. 16, 2020.

In a search warrant affidavit filed the day of the shooting, Decatur police Detective Timothy Jackson said Hamm called 911 at 5:10 p.m. that day “and reported that she shot her boyfriend in his head” at her mobile home located at 93 Sage Private Drive. “Hamm told 911 that she no longer had the firearm, but had placed it somewhere and she didn’t know where it was.”

Jackson said responding police officers found Hamm in a back bedroom and found the firearm outside the residence.

“The officers found the boyfriend, Bruce Cox, in the living room suffering from a gunshot wound to his head,” Jackson wrote. “Cox was transported to the Decatur Morgan Hospital, where he later succumbed to his wounds.”

In the search warrant return following the search of Hamm’s residence, police said they seized two 9mm handguns, a .22-caliber revolver, several bags of a “green leafy substance” and two cellphones.

Hamm’s bond was initially set at $100,000 and later reduced to $50,000, but she never posted bond. A grand jury indicted her for murder on March 1, 2022.

Howell’s sentencing order prohibits Hamm from contacting the victim’s family during her incarceration. It also says she will be ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined at an April 20 hearing.

Manslaughter is a Class B felony. Sentencing guidelines provide that the minimum penalty for a Class B felony committed with a firearm is 10 years in prison. Had a jury found Hamm guilty of the Class A felony of murder, her minimum sentence under the guidelines would have been 20 years, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

— [email protected] or 256-340-2435. Twitter @DD_Fleischauer.

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