Preacher guilty of killing wife, putting body in freezer

MOBILE, Alabama - 8:54 p.m.
Anthony Hopkins guilty on all counts of murder, rape, sodomy, sex abuse and incest. Sentencing on May 6 at 9am.

8:20 p.m.
Jurors asked Circuit Court Judge John Lockett to give them the instructions again on the incest charge.

Deliberations continued at 8:25 p.m.

6:55 p.m.
Jurors in the Anthony Hopkins murder and rape trial will begin deliberating after they receive their instructions from Circuit Court Judge John Lockett.

The jury decided to begin deliberations tonight, but if they do not reach a verdict by 8:30 p.m. they plan to continue deliberations tomorrow morning.

3:25 p.m.
Defense rests.

2:00 p.m.
Anthony Hopkins, 39, admits he buried his wife's body in a shallow grave, dug her back up and put her in a freezer, but he denies being the person who killed her.

Testifying in his rape and murder trial, the traveling preacher told jurors he was not home when Arletha, 36, died. Hopkins testified he walked into the family's house on Rylands Street after he got off work from his job at WalMart, and he could hear their baby crying. He says that is when he found his wife lying on the floor.

Hopkins told jurors he attempted to perform CPR, but when it didn't work he panicked. "It's not often you find your wife dead," he told jurors explaining why he didn't call 911. Hopkins said he was afraid he'd go to jail because she died in his house.

Hopkins confessed to undressing his wife, wrapping her body in a bed sheet and soliciting his stepdaughter's help to move her. During his testimony, he implied that his stepdaughter may have been the one to kill Arletha because she was emotionless when she walked in the room while he performed CPR. "She didn't cry," he told jurors.

Hopkins says he and his stepdaughter drove around Jackson, Alabama before digging a hole and burying his wife in a shed behind a church. He then testified that he dug her body back up and put her in a freezer because he "didn't want her stinking." When asked if he jumped on her body to make it fit in the freezer, Hopkins replied "I didn't jump on it. It fit snuggly."

Hopkins told jurors he thought the freezer would "preserve the evidence" until he came forward, but on cross examination he said he never found the right time to come forward.

Hopkins admitted he had sex with his stepdaughter when she was 19 years old, but denied forcing her to have sex for eight years beginning when she was eleven. He told prosecutors his stepdaughter's testimony was a lie.

Defense Attorney Jeff Deen says he plans to call two more witnesses. Jurors could begin deliberating as early as this afternoon.

11:00 a.m.
Anthony Hopkins is on the stand in his rape and murder trial.

10:25 a.m.
Prosecutors rested their case in the murder and rape trial of a preacher accused of killing his wife and hiding her body in a freezer for nearly four years.

Pastor Beverly Jackson of Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Jackson, Alabama told jurors Anthony Hopkins was preaching at her church when he was arrested on July 28, 2008.

Sgt. Ron Baggette of the Clark County Sheriff's Office also testified Friday. He was among the officers who arrested Hopkins.

9:00 a.m.
Prosecutors called Dr. Kathy Porter back to the stand Friday to testify for a second time in the murder and rape trial of a preacher accused of killing his wife and hiding her body in a freezer for nearly four years.

Anthony Hopkins' attorney, Jeff Deen, suggested Thursday that natural causes could have killed Arletha Hopkins, who investigators believe was 36 when she died. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Arletha's body testified he believed homicidal violence was the manner of death, but he could not pinpoint the exact cause because the body was severely decomposed. On cross examination Thursday, Deen questioned the medical examiner about whether Arletha's "high risk gestational diabetes" could have caused her death.

Porter, an OBGYN from the University of South Alabama Medical Center, told jurors Friday that Arletha Hopkins' diabetes "were under control" when she was discharged from the hospital.

Assistant District Attorney Ashley Rich plans to call two more witnesses Friday morning before resting their case.

Anthony Hopkins was arrested in July 2008 after police found his wife's body in a freezer at the family's home on Rylands Street. Hopkins was preaching at a revival in Jackson, Alabama when sheriff's deputies took him into custody.

According to court documents obtained by News Five in 2008, Hopkins' stepdaughter lead police to her mother's body. Arletha Hopkins had never been reported missing, but investigators believe she had been dead since December 2004, shortly after she gave birth to the couple's youngest child.

Anthony Hopkins' stepdaughter, who was 19 when she went to police, told jurors on Tuesday her father began raping her when she was 11 years old. Several months after Hopkins was arrested, his teenage daughter gave birth to a baby.