A woman charged with killing her daughter’s boyfriend pled guilty Thursday to aggravated assault and was sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison.
Katherine Lynn Hodges, 37, Macedonia Road, was sentenced to 15 years for the aggravated assault charge, with 10 years to serve, said Ogeechee Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Michael Muldrew.
For a charge of giving false statements, Bulloch County Superior Court Judge Gates Peed sentenced her to five years to serve, and another five years to serve for threatening a witness, he said.
Hodges’ daughter, Kendra McDaniel, 22, Keith Road, Guyton, pled guilty earlier this year to manslaughter.  Peed sentenced her to 20 years in prison — 15 years to serve and five years on probation, Muldrew said.
McDaniel was originally charged with murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a first offender, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, terroristic threats, and giving a false statement. As part of a plea bargain she admitted guilt to the lesser charge, he said.
Hodges had asked for a jury trial, but when she appeared Thursday she accepted a plea agreement, he said. Originally charged with murder, aggravated assault, giving a false statement and obstruction, she agreed to plea guilty on the lesser charges of aggravated assault, giving false statements and threatening or intimidating witnesses.
Bulloch County Sheriff’s deputies responded to Hodges’ home Sept. 6, 2010, to what was initially reported as an accidental shooting. However, evidence led investigators to the realization that Sheffield’s death was not accidental.
Responding deputies found Sheffield lying in the yard, suffering from a gunshot wound. Bulloch County EMS rushed Sheffield to East Georgia Regional Medical Center, and he was airlifted to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, where he died of his wounds a short time after arrival, according to Bulloch County Sheriff Lynn Anderson.
An autopsy performed at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Coastal Regional Crime Lab in Savannah resulted in findings that Sheffield’s death was homicide by manner of gunshot, he said. Evidence also gathered by investigators determined that the story of the shooting being accidental was not true, he said.
Investigator Bill Black and other Bulloch County Sheriff’s investigators and deputies conducted follow-up investigations, including interviews and serving a search warrant, and secured “probable cause to issue arrest warrants,” Anderson said.
Muldrew said investigations revealed an argument between McDaniel and Sheffield began elsewhere and continued at Hodges’ home, and during the altercation, Hodges “hit him on the head with a metal pipe” and McDaniel shot him.
Hodges was taken into custody Sept. 9, but a day-long manhunt ensued before officers arrested McDaniel in Effingham Sept. 10.

Holli Deal Bragg may be reached at (912) 489-9414.