With his head down and a black rosary around his neck, 35-year-old Umar Hudson was sentenced Tuesday morning to 205 years in prison for murdering his daughter’s mother and abusing her two children.
As Judge Jerome Benson read the sentence, Hudson, wearing an orange jumpsuit, kept his eyes on the floor.
After a month-long trial, Hudson was convicted in November of the fatal stabbing of Jernell Scott, 32, outside of her Bernal Heights home in April 2007. He was also convicted of abusing Scott’s 9- and 13-year-old daughters.
One juror said after the sentencing that she felt a sense of relief; that she had done right by kids who suffered through so much emotional hardship.
Earlier, Hudson’s brother Ali and uncle, Rickey Jackson, anxiously awaited the sentence. They were the only two family members to show up to the sentencing.
“At the end of the book, God will remember,” Ali Hudson said.
Jackson added, “I’d like to apologize to Scott’s family on behalf of our family.”
Before leaving the courtroom, Hudson thanked Judge Jerome Benson for showing fairness in the case.
Hudson and Scott had a child who was 16 months old at the time of the murder. Scott left behind five children.
After the sentencing, Martine Barbier, the district attorney’s victims advocate assigned to the case, read a letter to the court on behalf of Chiffona Patterson, Scott’s sister.
Patterson wrote that Hudson took someone very special from the children, and emphasized the emotional, mental and physical hurt that Hudson caused.
“You did your crime and now you will do your time,” read the letter. “My sister can now rest in peace because justice has been served.”