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A Butler County jury will determine the fate of a man accused of helping murder his grandmother in Augusta last year. New details of Loyce Cody's death were revealed at her grandson's preliminary hearing on Thursday.
It was a morning filled with detailed descriptions of how Loyce Cody's body was found and how she died.
"I looked at it, it looked to me to be consistent with what dried blood looks like," said Sergeant Michael Stueven of the Augusta Police Department. "And so, as I turned around to tell him that I thought it was blood, I looked up and underneath the bedcovers I could see dark colored hair."
Police say Jacob Hoyt and his girlfriend, Lindsey Giovinazzo, had stolen a car in Independence, Kansas, from his roommate and took off without a destination in mind. They ended up at his grandmother's house in Augusta.
Officers testified Hoyt confessed to discussing first robbing his grandmother, to get money for drugs, and then killing her. Although Hoyt told police he thought his girlfriend was joking about that.
But he told police, after his grandmother let them into the house, fed them and went to bed, his girlfriend went into the bedroom and tried to take her purse. The two women started to fight and Giovinazzo called to Hoyt for help. Hoyt claims both were involved in killing Cody.
"He said that he actually sat on her head, with a pillow over her head, while Lindsey was sitting on her chest suffocating her," said Captain Bruce Ralph of the Augusta Police. "Mrs. Cody actually was asking why he was doing this and told him that she loved him and that she prayed for him every night."
Jacob Hoyt pled not guilty to charges of first degree murder, felony theft and arson and asked for a jury trial. That trial is scheduled to begin December 10, one year and five days after his grandmother's death.
Giovinazzo has already pleaded guilty in the case and will be sentenced in October.