Pregnant inmate released on $100K bond
Published 1:13 pm Tuesday, April 14, 2020
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NATCHEZ — An Adams County Jail inmate who became pregnant while in custody was released Monday afternoon and will remain on house arrest after posting a $100,000 property bond.
According to an order signed Friday by Adams County Circuit Court Judge Debra W. Blackwell decreasing Jessica Aldridge’s $200,000 bond to $100,000 and setting conditions, Aldridge will be required to stay at home while wearing an electronic monitoring device and is required to pay a monthly service fee for the device.
“She will notify the Adams County Sheriff’s Department of all appointments at least 24 hours in advance,” the order states. “A monitoring report of defendant’s whereabouts shall be provided to the court and to the Adams County Sheriff’s Department every week.”
No one will be allowed to visit Aldridge, according to the order, and Aldridge will not be allowed to use social media or internet and cannot contact her children even via telephone.
Aldridge cannot have any contact with the victim’s family and cannot be in the presence of or possess any firearms.
Aldridge next court date is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 11, and Aldridge is required to stay in contact with her attorney and cannot have any contact with any witnesses or potential witnesses in her case.
Aldridge is accused of shooting her boyfriend, Joseph Cupit, 41, to death on March 17, 2019, in a domestic dispute.
Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten said Aldridge has not yet been to trial on the charges due to a backlog of felony cases and slow evidence processing at the state crime lab.
“Any felony is going to run you two years out, dealing with the system and the crime lab,” Patten said of the delay in a trial on the charges.