A 53-year-old Jefferson County man has pleaded guilty to abuse of corpse in connection with the 2019 disappearance and death of Paighton Houston, whose body was later found in a shallow grave.

Frederick Hampton entered his guilty plea before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Thomas Thrash in the Bessemer Cutoff. Hampton’s plea came Monday, the day his trial on the felony charge was set to begin.

As part of the plea, Hampton was sentenced to 20 years in prison with three years to serve followed by five years of probation.

Hampton received credit for time served.

“He’s just glad it’s over,’’ said his attorney, Emory Anthony. “He felt like it was his best option.”

Hampton was not charged in Houston’s death, only with actions authorities say he took following her death, which in this case would be burying her.

According to Alabama law, a person commits the crime of abuse of a corpse if he or she knowingly treats a human corpse in a way that would “outrage ordinary family sensibilities.” It is a Class C felony.

Houston, 29, vanished Dec. 20, 2019. She was last seen at Tin Roof in the 2700 block of Seventh Avenue South in Birmingham’s Lakeview District.

According to Birmingham police, she left the bar about 10:45 p.m. with two males.

She had reportedly gone to the Birmingham bar with co-workers.

Friends on Facebook said Houston didn’t know the men and that the last text message from her to a coworker – about two hours after she left Tin Roof – stated she didn’t know where she was, and she felt she might be in trouble.

She had sent multiple messages to her co-worker, the last one reading, “Idk who im with so if I call please answer. I feel in trouble.” That text was sent at 12:15 a.m. Dec. 21 but not seen by her coworker until nearly two hours later.

“We have evidence the victim and the offender were together the night of Dec. 20, 2019,’’ said Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief David Agee in an earlier press conference. “We have evidence the victim died the next day at a house on McClain Street in Brighton. We have evidence that after the victim died, her body was disposed of in a criminal manner by Fredrick Hampton.”

Her body was found Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, wrapped in sheets and buried in a shallow grave behind the house at 215 Chapel Drive. That house belongs to relatives of Hampton.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office listed the cause of death as morphine and methamphetamine toxicity. The manner of death was accidental.

“This represents an overdose and is classified as a drug-opioid death,’’ Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates previously said.

Houston’s family filed a civil lawsuit in 2021. It is set for trial next year.

The lawsuit stated that Houston went to Hampton’s home and then they, and at least one other person, left there and went to the Tin Roof.

While there, Houston, Hampton and others were continually served alcohol, “despite being observed to be visibly and apparently intoxicated on the premises,’’ and never “cut off” from buying more, the suit says.

Late that night or early the next morning, Houston, Hampton and unnamed defendants left the Tin Roof while “visibly and apparently intoxicated.” Family and friends were then unable to contact Houston.

While both Houston and Hampton were in a “visibly and apparently intoxicated state,’’ the suit states, “Hampton proximately caused the death of Paighton Houston by providing and or/administering a lethal dose of morphine and methamphetamine,’’ to Houston.