FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — A North Carolina woman convicted in 2014 of killing her husband’s ex-girlfriend was sentenced last week to an additional 20 years behind bars after a jury determined she tried to cover up the killing by feeding the woman to alligators.
Amanda Hayes and her husband, Grant Ruffin Hayes III, were convicted of killing and dismembering Laura Ackerson, 27, more than three years ago in Raleigh. The incident followed a long custody dispute over Grant Hayes’s two oldest children.
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A jury in North Carolina found Amanda Hayes guilty in 2014 of second-degree murder in Ackerson's death. She was sentenced to 13 to 16 years in prison. Grant Hayes was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Prosecutors said Ackerson’s body was cut with a power saw and driven to Amanda Hayes’s sister’s home in Texas.
New details reveal Amanda Hayes tried to dissolve Ackerson’s remains with acid before dumping them into an alligator-infested creek in Texas, prosecutors said.
"The couple first attempted to use muriatic acid to destroy Ackerson's body," authorities said in a press release obtained by KTRK. "When that didn't work, they took a boat onto Oyster Creek and dumped Laura's body parts into the water with hopes that alligators would eat her remains."
A Texas jury last week convicted Amanda Hayes of tampering with evidence. Her additional 20-year sentence will be served consecutively with her North Carolina sentence, KTRK reported.
The Cox Media Group National Content Desk contributed to this report.