Young man to atone for part in elderly woman’s murder

A young man was sentenced this afternoon for his part in the murder of an elderly woman in Seneca nearly three years ago.  This was sentencing day for Hunter Lee Hunnicutt, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter a few months after co-defendant Dakota Brown shot and killed Geraldine Castle, Brown’s grandmother.  Judge McIntosh’s sentence:  15 years suspended to seven years in prison, five years probation.  Hunnicutt is to be credited with 1,083 days in jail awaiting the resolution of his case.  Triggerman Brown was imprisoned for 50 years when found guilty of murder.  Almost right from the start, Hunnicutt cooperated and eventually turned state’s evidence, testimony that the prosecution felt was indispensable in winning the conviction.  At the time of the Castle murder, the judge was told, Brown and Hunnicutt intended to burglarize the home of Brown’s parents.  Unexpectedly, they found Castle there.  At that time, Hunnicutt was 17 and, as his lawyer explained, let himself hang around with a wrong crowd.