ELIZABETHTON, TN – Two brothers from Carter County have been sentenced to life in prison following their conviction in the shooting death of their father during an inheritance dispute over family property.
Jacob Alexander Hitchcock, 33, and Joshua Elliott Hitchcock, 27, were each found guilty by a Carter County jury in May on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection to the April 2023 killing of their father, William “Bill” Hitchcock, Jr., 63. Jacob Hitchcock also received an additional conviction for tampering with evidence.
The court handed both men life sentences for murder on Wednesday, with an extra 15 years each for the conspiracy conviction and three additional years for tampering in Jacob Hitchcock’s case. The sentences are to be served concurrently, making both brothers eligible for parole after serving a required portion of their time.
Bill Hitchcock was found dead on April 1, 2023, in the driveway of his residence on Old Stoney Creek Road in Elizabethton, a rural community near Johnson City. His body was discovered by fishermen working on the nearby Watauga River, who alerted authorities after failing to get a response from the victim.
First responders arrived at the scene and found evidence consistent with a gunshot wound. However, law enforcement at the time withheld details about the case and did not disclose how investigators linked the crime to the Hitchcock brothers.
Most details surrounding the killing became public only during the week-long trial. Prosecutors argued that unresolved tensions over family land motivated a premeditated plot to murder the elder Hitchcock, who had expressed intentions to sell property inherited from a recently deceased relative. The prosecution claimed that keeping the property in the family was a driving force for both sons.
Joshua Hitchcock admitted during his testimony that he fired the shot that killed his father. He told jurors, however, that the shooting resulted from self-defense, not from an orchestrated murder. He recounted confronting his father about the planned sale of the land, claiming that the argument escalated when his father reached for a firearm, prompting Joshua to shoot.
Following the incident, Joshua said he panicked and did not inform anyone, including his brother or their mother, about his father’s death. He explained to the court that fear and shock contributed to his choice not to report the shooting to authorities.
Investigators and attorneys pointed to a series of text messages exchanged between the Hitchcock brothers as evidence of planning, referencing past conversations about violent intentions toward their father. Prosecutors highlighted these as signs of conspiracy, though Joshua described them as nothing more than expressions of frustration and denied acting according to any plan.
Jacob Hitchcock, for his part, did not take the stand during the trial. Prosecutors placed him near his father’s property around the time of the killing, stating that evidence showed he drove his vehicle to a nearby church and contacted Joshua about his father’s location.
As the trial concluded, jurors sided with the prosecution’s account of premeditated murder motivated by financial and familial disputes. Neither brother’s defense was enough to sway the verdict.
Both men will serve their sentences in a Tennessee state prison. The case leaves a community grappling with the violent breakdown of family ties and the cost of tragic decisions made over an inheritance.