Third defendant sentenced in Newton County fatal kidnapping case

Apr. 16—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Greenwood man involved in the kidnapping, torture and slaying of Michael Hall four years ago was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in a federal prison without parole.

U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool meted out the prison term to Russell R. Hurtt, 52, also known as "Uncle," at a sentencing hearing in federal court in Springfield.

Hurtt pleaded guilty a year ago to a kidnapping count in a plea agreement dismissing a more serious offense of kidnapping resulting in death and a third count of committing a violent crime involving drugs or firearms and resulting in death. He is the third of six defendants to be sentenced.

Lawrence W. Vaughan, 52, of Neosho, was sentenced Nov. 7 to 25 years without parole, and James B. Gibson, 41, also of Neosho, was sentenced Monday to 30 years. Three others have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, including Freddie "Ol' Boy" Tilton, 51, of Joplin, who is believed to have shot and killed Hall the morning of July 15, 2020.

At the time, Tilton and Hall were at odds over a trailer that Hall and others believed Tilton had stolen. Hall and two others retrieved the trailer July 4, 2020, enraging Tilton.

In a series of text messages, Hurtt informed a woman who helped retrieve the trailer that those involved were "going to get hurt and probably killed," according to Hurtt's plea agreement. He told the woman that she needed to tell him the name of the man involved or where he could find him.

The woman purportedly responded: "All I know he said his name was Mike and he was a brother or Honky." The Honkies are a prison gang made up of state inmates and former inmates from the Joplin and Springfield area.

The plea agreement states that Hurtt sent Tilton a message via Facebook Messenger 10 days before Hall's slaying asking if he wanted him to find "Mike" for him and Tilton responded, "Yes." Hurtt proceeded to pressure the woman to talk to Tilton and to give up where Hall might be found.

Once he became aware of Hall's identity, Tilton sent a threatening message to Hall and continued to post threatening messages on Facebook regarding the matter before finally offering Vaughan and co-defendant Carla Jo Ward, 49, of Joplin, $5,000 each if they would help him locate and detain Hall.

Ward assisted in the conspiracy by picking up the victim and taking him to Vaughan's residence in Newton County. Vaughan let Tilton know that Hall was there and helped disarm him of two guns prior to Tilton, Gibson and Amy K. Thomas, 40, of Webb City, showing up and restraining Hall with handcuffs and duct tape.

The plea agreement states that the three assailants then beat him, cut him with a knife and burned him with a blowtorch before Tilton ultimately shot him in the head.

They then wrapped his body in plastic and transported it to a property that Hurtt owned along Cherry Road in Newton County. The body was discovered there almost two weeks later when Newton County executed a search warrant on the property based on a tip that they there was a body there.

Tilton, who was inside the residence at the property when deputies showed up, fired several rounds at them from the house before a SWAT team flushed him out with tear gas and took him into custody.

All six defendants initially were indicted by a federal grand jury in 2021 on kidnapping and murder charges under a felony murder rule. But the U.S. attorney's office in Springfield dismissed the murder counts against all six in 2022 in light of a ruling in another federal case.

Thomas has a sentencing hearing scheduled Thursday in federal court in Springfield. No sentencing dates have been set as yet for Tilton or Ward.