2 more plead guilty in deadly kidnapping case

Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·2 min read

Apr. 27—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Two more co-conspirators took plea deals Thursday in the kidnapping of Michael Hall three years ago that resulted in the Carthage man's death by gunshot.

Amy Kay Thomas, 39, and Lawrence "Scary Larry" Vaughan, 51, pleaded guilty at a hearing in federal court in Springfield to conspiring to kidnap the 41-year-old Hall. Thomas also pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

A count of kidnapping resulting in death that Thomas, of Webb City, and Vaughan, of rural Newton County, each faced would be dismissed under terms of their plea agreements.

Three other co-conspirators — Russell E. Hurtt, 51, of Greenwood; James B. Gibson, 40, of Neosho; and Carla Jo Ward, 49, of Joplin — took similar plea offers earlier this month, with Ward and Gibson pleading guilty to the same firearm offense as Thomas in addition to the conspiracy count they all faced. The indictments of Hurtt and Vaughan did not include a firearm offense.

The five plea deals reached this month leave only the charges against the sixth co-defendant, Freddie L. Tilton, 50, of Joplin, still pending in U.S. District Court in Springfield. Tilton, whom investigators believe fired the gunshot that killed Hall, recently had his case moved to the court's September trial docket.

A news release from the U.S. attorney's office in Springfield announcing the two defendants' plea changes Thursday noticeably omitted any mention of Tilton's name or his role in the kidnapping and slaying. But affidavits and plea agreements filed previously with the court allege that a conflict between Hall and Tilton over a stolen trailer led to the kidnapping and that it was Tilton who ultimately killed him.

Court documents state that Hall was lured July 14, 2020, to Vaughan's property on Route H, where he was handcuffed and his mouth duct-taped shut. Thomas cut him with a knife and Gibson beat him with a club and burned him with a blow torch before Tilton allegedly shot him in the head.

Newton County sheriff's deputies found the body July 28, 2020, on a property Hurtt owned on Cherry Road following an armed standoff with Tilton who was wanted at the time in connection with the kidnapping and domestic assault of his wife a couple of days after Hall's slaying and was hiding out there.

Deputies went to the address acting on a tip that there was a body there. A search of the residence after Tilton was flushed out with tear gas turned up firearms, including a disassembled 12-gauge shotgun with a sawed-off butt and a barrel inside a box.

Investigators also seized a burned cellphone that contained photos and screen shots from a video made of the assault on Hall, the U.S. attorney's office said.