ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — A former convenience store employee was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in the 2025 killing of his former manager at a southern Buncombe County gas station.
Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Grant sentenced John Parker Blodgett in Buncombe County Superior Court. The life sentence without parole is the mandatory minimum punishment for a first-degree murder conviction in North Carolina.
Blodgett pleaded guilty in the death of Jodi Anderson, who was found slain July 14, 2025, at the Shell station at 4012 Sweeten Creek Road in Asheville, where she worked as a manager.
Members of Anderson’s family attended Friday’s hearing and expressed their approval of the sentence, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
According to evidence presented in court, deputies with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call at 6:47 a.m. reporting a fight in progress at the store. The caller told dispatchers a man was strangling a woman.
When deputies arrived, they found Anderson behind the store counter in a large pool of blood. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators said Blodgett had been terminated from his job at the store several weeks earlier because of workplace issues and was upset about losing his job and being unable to obtain unemployment benefits.
Prosecutors said Blodgett walked to the store the morning of the killing armed with a kitchen knife. After waiting for a customer to leave, he placed Anderson in a headlock and stabbed her at least 21 times before cutting her throat.
Authorities said he fled on foot with a bank bag containing more than $3,000 in cash and was arrested without incident a short time later at the Walmart on Airport Road.
Investigators said Blodgett used blood-stained cash to purchase a debit card to pay an outstanding CashApp balance and attempted to wash Anderson’s blood from his hands in the store restroom. Deputies later recovered the knife in roadside brush between the gas station and the Walmart.
District 1 Capt. Dustan Auldredge called the killing “truly tragic” and said investigators worked quickly to gather evidence and determine what happened.
“The loss of Jodi Anderson to this senseless crime is truly tragic, and our thoughts are with her family,” Auldredge said. “The prompt investigative efforts by our team, aimed at uncovering the facts and gathering evidence, played a crucial role in bringing this case to a swift resolution.”