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Hammer admits killings, gets 7 life sentences
Authorities found murder weapon, cash in barn near where he had owned camper
Freddie Hammer apologized in court to the families of his victims, saying of one: "Mr. Hudler was very good to me."
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Published: May 23, 2009
INDEPENDENCE, Va.
Freddie Hammer, accused of killing three men during a robbery at a Christmas-tree farm in Grayson County, Va., was in jail awaiting his capital murder trial when he made a deal with an inmate who was soon to be released.
Hammer told the inmate that $10,000 was buried in a barn at a campground. A rifle was there, too, hidden under bales of fencing. Hammer told him that if he found the rifle and got rid of it, he would give him $2,000.
Hammer's offer ended up costing him more than he expected.
The inmate wrote a letter to his girlfriend saying that he was going to be coming into some money when he got out of jail.
But the letter never reached his girlfriend. Instead, the inmate threw it away.
Guards found the letter in the trash. And when investigators questioned him, the inmate told them what Hammer had told him.
On May 5, investigators went to the barn at a private campground in Cripple Creek, Va., where Hammer had owned a camper.
Five feet from the inside corner of the barn, just as Hammer had described, officers dug down and found two cigar boxes filled with rolled coins, money that had been stolen from the safe at the Christmas-tree farm. Beneath the boxes they found a Yadkin Valley Bank bag containing damp, moldy cash.
Beneath rolls of fence wire, investigators found the murder weapon.
It is a .22-magnum rifle with a broken scope. The scope matched broken scope pieces found at the door of Ron Hudler's house.
A trace of the rifle's serial number showed that Hammer had purchased the rifle new in 1994 at a hardware store in Jefferson, N.C.
Faced with the new evidence, Hammer admitted yesterday in Grayson County Circuit Court that he had killed the men during a robbery, just as authorities had said when they arrested him a few days after the killings. He entered guilty pleas to five counts of capital murder and other charges in connection with the deaths and robbery.
He was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, as well as two more life terms.
He was also ordered to pay fines of $600,000.
Hammer, 49, of Crumpler, went to steal a safe at Ron Hudler's Christmas-tree farm on Jan. 24, 2008, and killed Ron Hudler, 73; his son, Fred Hudler, 44; and a farm employee, John Miller Jr., 25. He shot all three in the head. Authorities said that two other firearms were used in the crimes and that Hammer had disposed of them.
"What happened that day should not have happened, and I'm sorry," Hammer told the victims' family members in court just before he was sentenced. "I went there with the intention of doing a burglary…. It was going to be in and out."
The trial was not expected to get under way until later this year or in 2010, but prosecutors said that the surprise deal was proposed to them Wednesday. Attorneys were still negotiating details over the course of more than two hours yesterday morning.
Hammer killed three people, but there were more than three capital charges because Virginia law allows charges to be filed for various elements of the crime. And although the road to the Christmas-tree farm begins in North Carolina and the case involved men with primarily Ashe County ties, the killings happened at a house about 200 yards into Virginia.
Douglas Vaught, Grayson County commonwealth's attorney, said that there was enough evidence and that the crimes were heinous enough to support a jury's verdict of death. He said that members of the victims' families were consulted before the plea was entered.
"They also voiced the sentiment that a sentence of life in prison as an admitted murderer without possibility of parole could be in some aspects a worse punishment than death," he said.
Inside court, some family members cried quietly when prosecutors described how Hammer had killed the men.
"I probably deserve to die, whatever," Hammer said. "If you read the Bible, to live is Christ and to die is for gain. Sometimes I wish I was dead for what I did, but I can't change that. Mr. Hudler was very good to me."
Hammer had worked as a handyman years ago for Ron Hudler. In the past, Hammer had also expressed warm feelings for Fred Hudler.
He said in court that he had never met John Miller Jr. before the day he killed him. Miller left behind a wife and baby.
"I would ask that his wife would find it in their heart to forgive me," Hammer said. "It was something that never should have happened."
Vaught also laid out new evidence in court.
He said that two store clerks in Elk Creek, Va., saw Hammer when he pulled his truck in to get fuel on a road heading from Cripple Creek back to Ashe County on the day of the killings.
The clerks had never seen Hammer before, but they noted the truck's sign for his Freddie P.'s firewood business.
The sign said, "Here comes Freddie P.," and one of the clerks read it aloud to the other when Hammer pulled in.
They noticed that he had dirt and leaves on his clothes, as if he had been in the woods, Vaught said.
Authorities also consider Hammer a suspect in the disappearance and presumed death of his nephew Jimmy Blevins. Hammer was the last person seen with Blevins before he disappeared on Feb. 24, 2007.
Authorities had also wanted to question Hammer in connection with the unsolved killing of Tim Shatley on Nov. 19, 2005. Shatley was shot on a bridge on N.C. 16, just a few hundred yards from Blevins' home.
Hammer said in court yesterday that he is not responsible for those deaths.
"As far as Jimmy Blevins is concerned and Mr. Shatley … I had nothing to do with any of that," he said.
In the hallway after the court session, the sheriff of Ashe County, James Williams, said that Hammer is still the prime suspect in the Blevins case. He said that there is speculation about his role in the Shatley murder, but no evidence that Hammer was involved.
"I'm glad people in Ashe County will not have to worry about Mr. Hammer anymore," Williams said. "We will continue pursuing the Blevins case and the Shatley case with everything we've got."
Hammer had served prison time for killing an off-duty Philadelphia police officer in 1978. He had escaped from prison, been recaptured and had his conviction overturned. One of the reasons he came to live in Ashe County was to be in a place where people wouldn't know his past, he said in a past interview.
He wore leg shackles and had a padlocked chain around his waist yesterday.
He waved to his wife as he was led away.
Officers escorted Hammer's wife from the courthouse. They said she had not known anything about what her husband had done. Hammer said the same thing in court.
Officers with assault rifles stood guard as Hammer was loaded into a jail van. He was to be transported to Richmond for processing, then sent to a prison where he will begin serving life without the possibility of parole.
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.
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