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Texas grand jury indicts Amanda Hayes on body-dumping charge

Amanda Hayes, convicted of killing her husband's ex-girlfriend, Laura Ackerson, has been indicted by a grand jury in Texas for getting rid of Ackerson's remains there.

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RICHMOND, TEXAS — A Raleigh woman convicted two months ago of killing her husband's ex-girlfriend has been indicted by a grand jury in Texas for dumping the woman's remains there, one of the assistant district attorneys who prosecuted the murder case said Wednesday.

Amanda Hayes, 42 – who is serving up to 16 years in prison for the July 13, 2011, death of Laura Ackerson – could face 2 to 20 years in prison if she is convicted of a second-degree felony charge of tampering with physical evidence/human corpse.

Wake County prosecutors say Hayes and her husband, Grant Hayes, killed the 27-year-old Ackerson in their apartment, cut up her body and carried it in coolers to Richmond, Texas, where they disposed of the remains in a creek near the home of Amanda Hayes' sister.

A Fort Bend County, Texas, grand jury indicted Hayes this week.

Ultimately, she will be transported to Texas to face the charge, Wake County Assistant District Attorney Boz Zellinger said.

Zellinger added that authorities chose not to seek criminal charges against Grant Hayes, because he is serving a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.

Amanda Hayes, who was found guilty of second-degree murder, testified in her trial earlier this year that she didn't kill Ackerson and only helped get rid of her body because she feared what her husband might do to her if she didn't cooperate.

Grant Hayes has said that his wife accidentally killed Ackerson during an argument and that he helped cover up the death in an effort to protect her.

Prosecutors said the Hayeses wanted to "erase" Ackerson – the mother of Grant Hayes' two young sons – from their lives because of a bitter child custody dispute.

Amanda Hayes is carrying out her sentence in Raleigh at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women.

Grant Hayes, meanwhile, is at Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City, where he has incurred five infractions that include trying to escape, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.

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