Bobby Gene Hall enters court for his arraignment on Aug. 16, 2017. Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder before Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey on Wednesday. Gazette-Mail photo
By: Lacie Pierson, Staff Writer | Posted: April 11, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
A Clendenin man on Wednesday pleaded guilty to two charges of second-degree murder in the 2017 case of a double murder at a home along Garrison Avenue in Charleston.
Per the terms of a plea deal reached with prosecutors, Bobby Gene Hall, 43, didn’t have to explain to Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey or the victims’ families what he did on Feb. 7, 2017.
Instead, Kanawha Assistant Prosecutor Don Morris told the court what evidence he and Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Drummond would have presented at trial to prove Hall killed Timothy Jett, 55, and Audrey Short, 38.
Hall’s trial was set to begin April 23.
Another defendant in the case, 39-year-old Misty Ann Rucker, of Falling Rock, pleaded guilty to felony accessory after the fact before Bailey on Oct. 30, 2017. She is scheduled to be sentenced May 9.
If Bailey accepts the binding plea deal for Hall, Morris and Drummond agreed to drop charges of possession of a stolen vehicle and fleeing with reckless indifference to the safety of others against Hall.
Hall is scheduled to be sentenced May 15.
State law requires a sentence of between 10 and 40 years in prison for a second-degree murder conviction.
Under the terms of the plea deal, Hall would be sentenced to a total of 30 years — 15 years for each count of murder.
Morris said he’d spoken with Tamara Jett, Timothy Jett’s sister, and Sharon Belcher, Short’s mother, about the plea deal prior to the hearing.
Both women have been kept up-to-speed about what Morris said were several rejected plea deals in the past year.
While Tamara Jett was satisfied with the plea deal, Morris said, Belcher was not happy with the agreement, noting she understood why prosecutors crafted the deal but wanted to see Hall spend more time in prison than he will serve if Bailey accepts the plea deal.
“She is the mother of a child who was murdered,” Morris said. “Obviously she has very strong feelings, which, while we can’t understand because we’re not in her position, we can certainly empathize with her because of the loss of her daughter.”
Bailey accepted Hall’s guilty plea, but said she would wait before making a ruling on whether to accept the other terms of the deal.
State law requires people convicted of second-degree murder to spend at least 10 years in prison for each conviction before they’re eligible for parole, so Hall wouldn’t be eligible for parole until he’s been in prison for 20 years.
However, if Bailey approves the deal and hands down the agreement’s recommended sentence, Hall’s attorney, Dan Holstein, said Hall will be eligible for release after 15 years with credit for good conduct in prison.
In cases where a person is convicted of a violent felony, like Hall’s case, those convicted have to serve one year of supervised release if they are released from prison before they’re eligible for parole.
That means if Hall is sentenced per the terms of the plea deal, he’ll spend 15 years in prison and serve one year of supervised release.
When Morris presented the facts of the case Wednesday, he said that Hall, Rucker and Rucker’s niece went to Jett’s home along Garrison Avenue on Feb. 7, 2017, to visit with him and Short. Morris said the trio traveled in a truck that had been reported stolen.
The three left the home, but instead of driving away, Morris said Hall retrieved a gun from the truck and went back into the house.
Rucker heard three gunshots before Hall ran back out of the home, she said when she pleaded guilty last fall.
Authorities declared Jett dead at the scene, and Short died days later, on Valentine’s Day, at a local hospital, Morris said.
Once they were fleeing the scene in the truck, Rucker said in October that Hall handed her the gun and asked her to ditch it, and she threw it out of the traveling vehicle.
Morris said he and Drummond would have presented evidence that showed the stolen truck was recovered in Mingo County, and that Rucker and Hall stole a 2002 Jeep Cherokee in South Williamson, Kentucky.
They were spotted driving the vehicle from Kentucky in Elkview on Feb. 8, and they engaged law enforcement in a vehicle pursuit that ended in Queen Shoals, near the Kanawha-Clay county line, and led to minor injuries for a Roane County sheriff’s deputy.
Following their arrest, Charleston Police Chief Steve Cooper, then still a lieutenant, said Hall had wanted to “take 10 to 12 police officers with him” and “make history.”
Hall is incarcerated at Western Regional Jail, and Rucker is incarcerated at Central Regional Jail, according to booking records on the West Virginia Regional Jail Authority website.
Reach Lacie Pierson at lacie.pierson@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @laciepierson on Twitter.
