Common Pleas Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. handed down a guilty verdict on Thursday, Feb. 1 following three days of testimony, said the Bucks District Attorney’s Office.
Hibbs, a 35-year-old mother of two, was found dead in her son’s bedroom after a fire at her Spencer Drive home on April 19, 1991, prosecutors said.
Investigators initially thought she died in an accidental fire, but an autopsy the next day revealed she had been repeatedly stabbed, had fractured ribs, and was likely asphyxiated, they said. The autopsy also showed no smoke in her lungs, indicating that she died before the fire, according to the pathologist.
For the next 30 years, Atkins — who lived a few doors down and occasionally sold marijuana to her and her husband — remained a person of interest in her murder, but always denied any involvement, according to the DA’s office.
He was finally charged in May 2022 after a five-month grand jury investigation that included revealing testimony from Atkins’ ex-wife.
April Atkins testified that her then-husband came home covered in blood on April 19, 1991, and admitted to stabbing someone and lighting their house on fire, the DA’s office said.