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Background: The area of the crime scene on Kolbs Corner in Jefferson County, Texas (KBMT/YouTube). Insets (from top to bottom): Cody Arnold and Chelsea Shipp (Jefferson County Sheriff”s Office).
A Texas man, who was 21 at the time he conspired with his girlfriend to murder a 16-year-old girl they believed he had impregnated, is now facing a lengthy prison sentence.
Cody Arnold has been sentenced to 34 years behind bars after being convicted of the murder of Katelynn Stone, as reported by southeast Texas affiliates ABC and NBC through KBMT. His accomplice, Chelsea Shipp, had already accepted a plea agreement and received a 40-year sentence for her role in the crime.
In March 2022, prosecutors indicated that Stone was residing with Arnold. During this period, Arnold was also romantically involved with Shipp, who was about 25 years old at the time.
Stone reportedly took a pregnancy test that returned a positive result, a fact Arnold later disclosed to investigators. This development posed a significant issue for both Arnold and Shipp.
Shipp warned Arnold that he could face legal consequences due to the age difference between him and Stone, potentially being labeled as a sex offender. This concern led Arnold and Shipp to devise a deadly plan, according to prosecutors.
On the weekend of March 26, 2022, Shipp and Arnold were at Arnold’s home on the 14000 block of Kolbs Corner near Beaumont, Texas. “They were seen together. They were talking about what they were going to do,” Jimmy Hamm with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said during Arnold’s trial, per KBMT. “They were smoking meth that entire weekend to build up the courage to kill that girl.”
According to Arnold’s version of events cited in a probable cause affidavit obtained by the outlet, around 2 p.m. that day, he walked into the room where Stone was sleeping and saw Shipp pointing a gun at her. The older woman then pulled the trigger, killing the teen.
Arnold reportedly covered Stone’s head with a trash bag after the shooting and said he did so because he did not want to look at her.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office reported that, on March 27, 2022, around 5 p.m., deputies were told about a “possible murder” at Arnold’s address. They arrived to find the body of Stone, “who had suffered a gunshot wound.”
Arnold was arrested, and two days later, the law enforcement agency announced that it secured a warrant for murder against Shipp. She was arrested on March 31, 2022.
Witnesses reportedly told investigators that Shipp had been confessing to people she shot Stone, apparently telling one woman, “I got rid of her” and “I shot her,” while using two fingers to make a shooting motion.
According to The Beaumont Enterprise, Shipp told investigators that she killed Stone at Arnold’s request. When they asked her why she did it, she said, “Because one of them was sleeping around on the other.”