Mother has sentence cut for killing accused rapist

Cunningham shot her daughter’s uncle Coy Hundley eight times outside the Alcoa lock company where he worked in October 2003.

Cunningham quoted her daughter, then 14, as saying Hundley raped her twice when she was younger. She said Hundley laughed when she asked him about the allegations and asked what she was going to do about it.

In a ruling announced Friday, the court reduced her sentence to an additional six months in confinement and the remainder of her sentence on supervised probation. She must also perform 120 hours of community service.

Cunningham has been out on bond since she was sentenced in December 2005. She served one or two months in jail before her sentencing that will count toward her news sentence, attorney Bruce Poston said.

The court did find that there was sufficient evidence to convict her and that the trial court did not err by failing to offer her judicial diversion, which would have allowed her to avoid jail time.

But the court said it gave weight to evidence and testimony that Cunningham was a good mother with no criminal record who did not use alcohol or drugs. She turned herself in to police and fully cooperated after the shooting.