After recommendations from the Commonwealth, Christian County Circuit Judge John Atkins sentenced both Dekorian Daniel and Jaila Sherrod to 10 years in prison Thursday afternoon — following their involvement in the October 2021 murder of 23-year-old Adrian Acree in Hopkinsville.
Daniel received five years for facilitation to murder and five years for complicity tampering with physical evidence, to be served consecutively.
Sherrod, meanwhile, received five years for facilitation to murder and five years for tampering with physical evidence, also to be served consecutively.
Atkins denied probation for both.
Daniel spoke of his own accord.
Following Daniel, Atkins recited a lengthy victim’s impact statement from Acree’s older sister, Courtney Acree-Ingram — one that excoriated him for his “lies and deception.”
Through Atkins, Acree-Ingram went on to reflect about a picture she has a childhood photo of Daniel and Acree together — shoulder to shoulder in her bedroom with a Hello Kitty poster behind them.
Finally, she says, there was an ultimate, insulting betrayal.
Daniel cried as Atkins kept reading.
Sherrod had entered a guilty plea to her charges in January 2024, which also brought with it a guarantee of cooperation with police, investigators and prosecutors regarding her co-defendants — which included Cortez Hairston Jr., who received 30 years for the murder.
According to police, Acree was killed on Jones Street near the intersection of Sharpe Street. Sherrod testified that Daniel owed Acree $3,400 from a drug deal, and prosecutors argued that Acree blamed Hairston Jr. for providing information about him to the police.
This eventually led to the recruitment of Sherrod and Daniel to help with Acree’s murder, and it was Sherrod who drove Acree to the location where he would be shot.
FULL IMPACT STATEMENT:
