The murder charge was filed against Osborne five months after the boy's body was found in a bedroom at his home.
Lauderdale County Coroner Clayton Cobler had said pills used to treat allergies were on the child's bed. However, Cobler said an autopsy revealed no pills in the boy's stomach. The cause of death, Cobler had said, was consistent with strangulation.
No one was charged with any crime at the time the child was found. But Cindy Hopkins, the child's mother, persuaded investigator Bill East of the state attorney general's office to look into the death.
East and Meridian police detectives exhumed Charles Hemming-Hopkins' body and found evidence that they say led to Osborne's arrest.
A Lauderdale County grand jury indicted Osborne on the murder charge in July 2003, alleging that he held his hand over the child's nose and mouth until he died.
