UPDATE: Murderer's mom guilty of lying about where gun was

A 74-year-old Willard mother has been convicted of lying to multiple investigators about the whereabouts of the murder weapon her adult son used.Billie A. Hinkle pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted obstructing justice in exchange for prosecutors dismissing one count each of tampering with evidence and obstructing justice.Her 51-year-old son, James H. Blair, is serving 23 years to life in prison for the July 28, 2015 shooting murder of his neighbor, Linda Ciotto. In late September, Blair pleaded guilty to one count each of aggravated murder and gross abuse of a corpse."Billie Hinkle was involved in the egregious crime committed by her son," Huron County Prosecutor Daivia Kasper said.After murdering Ciotto, Blair returned home and went into his bedroom. Kasper said Hinkle didn't call 9-1-1, but instead called her sister and she then began packing her bags and when she checked her night stand, she realized her .38 revolver was missing so she spoke to her son in his room."She asked, 'Where's my gun?' He produced it and gave it to her," Kasper said. "She slipped it into her bag and left."It wasn't immediately when he (Blair) went home. … It happened later that evening," the prosecutor continued.After Hinkle got the murder weapon from Blair, she placed it inside an overnight bag and "took it with her when she went to a family member's home in Willard," Kasper said.The Huron County Sheriff's Office investigated the murder with the assistance of the Willard Police Department and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Kasper said between July 28 and 30, 2015, Hinkle lied to sheriff's Detectives Rich Larson and Kayla Zander, Detective Sgt. Josh Querin, Chief Deputy Ted Patrick and a BCI special agent on the whereabouts of the gun."She said she wasn't hiding anything. She said she had no idea where (her son) would put the gun," Kasper said.At one point, Hinkle told authorities the murder weapon was with some relatives in Kentucky. Finally, she said there was "one last place" she hadn't looked and produced the gun from her bag, Kasper said."She said she didn't know know how it got there," the prosecutor added. "She said (Blair) must have slipped it in there."After repeatedly denying she knew where the gun was, Hinkle said her son gave it to her and she put it in her bag, Kasper said.One of the victim's sons was in court for Tuesday's plea hearing. He declined to comment.Defense attorney Russell Leffler told Huron County Common Pleas Judge Jim Conway he has some things he wanted to say about the case, but he would wait until his client's sentencing hearing, which is set for 10 a.m. Dec. 15.Hinkle, who has no previous felony convictions, faces six to 18 months behind bars for attempted obstructing justice, a fourth-degree felony. There was no sentencing agreement between the state and Leffler. However, Conway told Hinkle that "the likely outcome is a community control sanction."HinkleBlairInvestigators comb the scene at the murder scene following the 2015 shooting in Willard.