The judge who presided over the trial of two men charged in the December 2020 murder of Chicora native Caitlyn Kaufman in Nashville, Tenn., delayed sentencing for the one man who was found guilty at a hearing Friday.

At the conclusion of a sentencing hearing, Davidson County Judge Angelita Dalton said she would issue a ruling for DeVaunte Hill, 23, at an unspecified date in a couple weeks.

Hill and James Cowan, 29, both of Tennessee, were charged in the Dec. 3 road rage shooting death of Kaufman, who was 26 years old, while she was driving to St. Thomas West Hospital in Nashville where she worked as an intensive care nurse.

A jury found Hill, who was initially charged with first-degree murder, guilty of the lesser charge of second degree murder and acquitted Cowan following a four-day trial and two days of deliberation in January. Hill testified and admitted to shooting Kaufman while Cowan was driving.

During Friday’s hearing, Kaufman’s mother Diane Kaufman testified that the family remains traumatized by her death.

“Today marks the 820th day I haven’t talked to my daughter,” Kaufman said. She said she used to talk to Caitlyn at least twice and sometimes eight or more times a day.

She said Caitlyn accomplished a lot in her life, but wanted to get married, raise a family, become a nurse anesthetist and get a doctoral degree in medicine. Caitlyn had selected the names for the three children she wanted to have, her mother said.

“Everyday is difficult and a struggle,” Kaufman said.

Caitlyn loved the outdoors and country music, and had talked about moving to Nashville even when she was still a student at Butler High School, Kaufman said.

In high school, Caitlyn was involved in anti-drug and anti-bullying clubs, and was a cheerleader, a member of the diving team and an honors student, Kaufman said. She said her daughter loved kids and worked as a babysitter.

She said Caitlyn graduated with a dual major from Clarion University before graduating from California University with a degree in athletic training and then went on to Butler County Community College, where she graduated with an associate degree in nursing, and became a registered nurse.

“Caitlyn mastered everything she attempted, no matter how many times it took, because Caitlyn was ambitious, driven and wasn’t afraid of a challenge or hard work,” Kaufman said.

She said some of the patients she cared for at St. Thomas West Hospital called her after Caitlyn died to express their condolences. She said Caitlyn worked in the intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Caitlyn was an extraordinary young woman,” Kaufman said. “She taught all of us the meaning of love.”

She said she wears a necklace that contains Caitlyn’s ashes and her fingerprint.

Her murder shattered the lives of her family and friends, she said.

“Dec. 3 was the night evil truly affected our lives,” Kaufman said.

Therapy hasn’t stopped the stress and sleepless nights the family endures, and the struggles have impacted their health and work, she said.

“I don’t know how anyone can live with themselves when they intentionally kill someone,” Kaufman said.

She said she believes the jury made a mistake by acquitting Cowan, and he and Hill are equally responsible for Caitlyn’s death.

Kaufman asked Dalton to rebuke the jury’s decision and consider sentencing Hill to life in prison.

“The defendant stole my daughter’s life, and he gets to live,” she said.

Hill’s older sister Fredericka Williams testified that she, Hill and their six other siblings were raised in public housing, mostly by their mother and grandmother, because their father spent a lot of time in jail.

According to Williams, Hill was shot in the leg by a friend when he was 14 or 15. She said when he was 16, he got angry at their mother and grandmother for trying to force him to go to school and shot at their grandmother, 12-year-old sister and 3-year-old niece, but the shot missed his mother. The grandmother spent four days in a hospital, and his sister and niece were treated and released the day of the shooting, Williams said.

Williams said Hill had anger issues that intensified as he got older, and he eventually joined a gang.

The year Hill graduated high school, he robbed a pizza delivery driver at gunpoint, she said.

She said Hill has two children, ages 1 and 3, but isn’t married.

Hill testified, saying that for the last two years, he has been thinking about how he “destroyed” two families — Kaufman’s and his.

He called shooting Kaufman an “irrational and dumb decision” and apologized to her family.

“She didn’t deserve to die,” Hill said. “I’m genuinely sorry and regret what I’ve done.”

He apologized to his family for not getting anger management treatment.

He said he plans to spend his time in prison trying to become a better person and help other people in trouble after he is released.

Assistant district attorney Jan Norman, who prosecuted the case, said the evidence and testimony presented at the trial show Hill committed first degree murder. She asked Dalton to consider the evidence and testimony, consider the leniency showed by the jury and sentence Hill to 25 years in prison. For second degree murder, he is facing 15 to 20 years in prison, she said.

Norman said Hill was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile for shooting his family members in 2016. He was charged with four counts of attempted homicide and possession of a firearm, but adjudicated on four counts of aggravated assault and the gun charge, she said.

In 2017, Hill was charged as a juvenile with a felony count of gun possession, altering the serial number of the gun, theft and robbery, and was adjudicated on the gun possession and robbery charges, Norman said.

Georgia Sims, the assistant deputy public defender representing Hill, said his traumatic childhood played a role in the Kaufman murder.

“He deserves some blame, but this community creates barriers for kids like him,” Sims said.

Through the fourth grade, Hill was a “straight A student” who made the honor roll, Sims said. His grades went down after that, but he graduated early from the detention center and was allowed to participate in his home high school’s graduation ceremony, she said.

Juvenile court adjudicated him on less severe charges than those that were filed against him because the court saw potential in him, and that potential still exists, Sims said.

She asked Dalton to sentence Hill to 15 years in prison.