Nashville man guilty of murder flings F-bombs at judge

Prosecutors said Jacob Scott Hughes went into a ballistic rage in 2012, so upset at a friend and his girlfriend that Hughes beat his girlfriend's 17-month-old daughter so severely she died the next day.

Hughes told a consistent but different story to police. He said the girl, Eloise, fell from a bathtub and that caused her deadly injuries.

After a four-day trial that relied heavily on technical evidence, such as Facebook messages and pictures, to crack the 25-year-old Nashville man's story, a jury on Thursday found Hughes guilty of all four charges against him.

And then Hughes showed the rage that prosecutors said killed Eloise.

"Just leave. Just go," Hughes said, waving for his sobbing mother, father and sister to leave Judge Mark Fishburn's courtroom. Hughes later cursed at a court officer.

He asked what anybody could do to him. He's facing a life sentence for the two felony murder convictions.

"What are you going to do, kill me? Give me a death sentence?" he said.

Fishburn said Hughes' outburst would be taken into consideration at a sentencing hearing.

"They're life sentences. Who gives a flying f---?" Hughes said.

"You don't obviously, you never have," Fishburn replied.

"I don't. I really don't," Hughes said. He pointed at the judge and prosecutors and other court staffers. "F--- you, you're cool, you're cool. F--- all y'all. You go to hell," he said to them before he was taken out of the courtroom.

Hughes' family sat across the courtroom from his former girlfriend's family. They blamed each others' children as they left the courtroom separately, and under the security of court officers.

The day before Eloise's death, Hughes dropped his girlfriend, Neena Constanza, off at her job at Sonic. He took Eloise back to their apartment. They were alone for about three hours.

He told police he gave the girl a bath and Eloise got sick. He told police he left the bathroom to get bleach and heard three thuds. Eloise was injured. He tried to resuscitate the girl.

Without a phone, Hughes sent a Facebook message to his girlfriend at work and said Eloise wasn't breathing right.

"He didn't ask for 911 to come. He didn't ask for emergency care," Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman said in closing argument Thursday.

Costanza got a ride home and called 9-1-1 on the way. First responders found Eloise unresponsive on the bathroom floor. No one was around her, a firefighter testified.

Costanza was also charged in the case. She pleaded guilty in April 2014 to charges related to failing to protect her daughter. She is serving a 20-year sentence with a chance of parole after 6 years.

Nashville mother guilty of neglect in toddler’s death

Evidence presented by prosecutors poked holes in Hughes' story that the injuries were accidental. Two doctors testified at trial. According to prosecutors' summary in closing arguments, the doctors said that Eloise suffered 35 injuries, including five or six that caused bleeding in her brain and that could not have been from a short fall from a bathtub.

The case also relied on technical evidence: Photos and messages Hughes sent on Facebook during the time he was alone with Eloise that show him getting angry, and photos of Eloise with injuries that do not match the timeline Hughes told to police.

Prosecutors said Hughes had been arguing with Costanza and was upset a friend had cancelled their plans to get tattoos.

Grover Collins, Hughes' attorney, argued in closing that officials' assumptions created a "domino effect" in the case. He said first responders who found Eloise alone assumed abuse had taken place, prompting a police investigation that only followed leads that would support that theory.

The jury did not agree. Hughes is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 9.

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 or on Twitter @sbarchenger. 

Charges

Jacob Scott Hughes, 25, was found guilty of aggravated child abuse, aggravated child neglect and two counts of felony murder. Tennessee law requires life in prison for the murder convictions. Hughes is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 9.