Story Published:
May 22, 2009 at 4:27 PM CST
Story Updated:
May 22, 2009 at 4:27 PM CST
OZARK, Mo. -- A woman from Sparta received a 20-year prison sentence on Friday for her second-degree murder conviction. A Taney County jury in Forsyth convicted Paula Hall in February for the beating death of Freda Heyn of Oldfield in 2003.
Hall could have received a 30-year sentence but Circuit Judge John Moody of Mansfield, who presided at the trial, opted for the 20-year sentence. Christian County Prosecuting Attorney Ron Cleek says Hall will have to serve at least 17 years before she is eligible for parole.
Hall has been in jail for three years awaiting trial, so she’ll get credit for that time. Cleek says Hall could be eligible for her first parole hearing in 2023.
After Heyn’s disappearance from Oldfield in 2003, friends, family and law enforcement officers searched for her for several months. Hikers found her skull in the Mark Twain National Forest near Chadwick in the spring of 2004.
In late 2006, Cleek charged Paula Hall with first-degree murder, Billy Hall (her former brother-in-law) with second-degree murder and David Epperson, a friend of the Halls, with second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Cleek dropped the murder charge against Epperson a week after filing it, after securing an agreement that Epperson would testify against the Halls.
Cleek dropped the murder charge against Billy Hall because he wasn’t sure he could get a conviction. After Paula Hall’s trial, which Cleek says revealed some additional evidence, Cleek again charged Billy Hall with second-degree murder, as well as kidnapping.
Epperson testified he returned from a trip to Kansas City in November 2003 and, when he got home, he found Paula Hall inside his home. Epperson also testified that Billy Hall then brought Heyn to his home. He said Paula Hall picked up a golf club that Epperson had lying in his front yard and hit Heyn in the back of the head, causing her death.
Epperson went on to testify that the trio left Heyn, badly bleeding, on the side of the house and went inside to use methamphetamine before later taking her body into the woods.
Jurors chose to convict Paula Hall of second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder.
Billy Hall is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on June 19 in Christian County associate circuit court.
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