Man receives 60 years for child's murder

Published: Friday, May 13, 2005

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A man was sentenced to 60 years in prison Thursday for smothering his girlfriend's 6-year-old son and stuffing the body into an oven he then tried to turn on.

Kenneth Pierott, 28, had been convicted late Wednesday by jurors who rejected his claim that he was insane at the time of the killing.

Pierott of Beaumont will have to serve at least 30 years before being eligible for parole.

Kathy Odoms, the mother of victim Tre-Devin Odoms and Pierott's ex-girlfriend, was satisfied. "I just feel like justice was served and if he was to get out, I feel like it would have happened again."

Odoms said her son with Pierott, 3-year-old Jacory, is too young to understand the case. "When it's time for me to talk to him, I will," she said.

Defense attorneys claimed Pierott sometimes thought he was God, believed others could read his mind and killed Tre-Devin to protect Jacory, who was 2 at the time.

Prosecutors, however, pointed out that Pierott waited until Kathy Odoms fell asleep before smothering her son in April 2004, killed him quietly and left the house when Odoms awoke and began looking for Tre-Devin.

He was found dead in the oven in his house. Pierott had turned the oven on, but the pilot light wasn't lit so the oven didn't heat.

Raquel Galle, Pierott's attorney, said she wasn't surprised by the sentence. Defense attorneys had asked the jury to pick a sentence midway between probation and life in prison.

"He could have gotten life so I think they took that into consideration," she said. "I think they must have taken into consideration his mental illness."

Even if the jury had given Pierott a life sentence, he would be eligible for parole in 30 years, as he is with this sentence, noted prosecutor Ed Shettle.