Fourth defendant draws 20-year sentence in fatal kidnapping case

Apr. 18—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A federal judge has sentenced a Webb City woman to 20 years in prison for her part in the kidnapping, torture and slaying of Michael Hall four years ago in Newton County.

Amy K. Thomas, 40, appeared at a sentencing hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, where Judge M. Douglas Harpool assessed her concurrent terms of 240 months for kidnapping and 120 months for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ordered that the terms be served without parole.

Thomas pleaded guilty to the counts April 27, 2023, in a plea agreement dismissing related counts of kidnapping resulting in death and felony murder. Upon completion of her prison time, Thomas will be on supervised release for five years.

Six people have pleaded guilty to playing a role in the kidnapping of Hall, 41, and subsequent torture and slaying at the residence of defendant Lawrence W. Vaughan, 52, near Neosho. Thomas is the fourth of those defendants to be sentenced.

The crime stemmed from a beef the principal defendant, Freddie "Ol' Boy" Tilton, 51, of Joplin, had with Hall regarding a stolen trailer that Hall and two others had retrieved from him.

Tilton, who did not know Hall at the time or where to find him, offered co-defendants Vaughan and Carla Jo Ward, 50, of Joplin, $5,000 each if they would help him identify and locate those who took the trailer.

After finding out that Hall was involved, Ward arranged to pick him up on July 14, 2020, and took him to Vaughan's home. Tilton, Thomas and defendant James B. Gibson, 41, showed up in the early morning hours the next day and beat, bound and gagged the victim before cutting and burning him.

The defendants also fired shots at Hall while he was restrained in a chair, with Tilton believed to have fired the shot that ultimately struck him in the head and killed him. The conspirators wrapped his body in plastic in the aftermath and transported it to a property owned by defendant Russell R. Hurtt, 52, of Greenwood.

Acting on a tip that there was a body at the address, Newton County deputies arrived there with a search warrant July 28, 2020, and encountered gunfire coming from inside the house. A SWAT team was called and tear gas used to flush the lone occupant, Tilton, from the residence.

The U.S. attorney's office said in a news release Thursday announcing her sentencing that Thomas participated in the conspiracy by driving Tilton and Gibson to Vaughan's place, by joining in the beating of Hall and by helping clean up the blood at the kill site.

Vaughan was sentenced in November to 25 years without parole. Gibson received 30 years without parole at a hearing Monday, and Hurtt was sentenced to seven years without parole Tuesday. Tilton and Ward have yet to be sentenced in the case.