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Grassy Creek epilogue
Other probes shouldn't end with killer's conviction
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Published: May 28, 2009
Just over a year ago, Freddie Hammer proclaimed his innocence in the murders of three men at a Christmas-tree farm in Grayson County, Virginia, telling the Journal's Monte Mitchell that, "I'm very careful about what I say and who I say it to." For the sake of justice, it's a good thing Hammer let his guard down as he awaited trial, incriminating himself in a conversation with a fellow inmate. Hammer is in prison for life for the robbery and murders in January 2008, which shocked the region. But authorities should continue to investigate two other unsolved killings linked to Hammer.
Last week in Grayson County Circuit Court, Hammer pleaded guilty to the killings of his former employer, farm owner Ron Hudler; his son, Fred Hudler; and farm employee John Miller Jr. The crime scene was just inside Grayson County, at its border with North Carolina's Ashe County. Deputies from both counties did strong work on the case. Hammer inadvertently helped seal the case against himself by telling a fellow inmate about $10,000 and a rifle he'd stashed, and offering the inmate $2,000 if he'd find the rifle and get rid of it.
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, Mitchell reported in Saturday's Journal, but the inmate threw the letter away. Guards found the letter, and investigators talked to him about it and recovered money and the rifle.
Hammer's guilty plea spared him the death penalty, but got him seven life sentences. Family members of the victims "voiced the sentiment that a sentence of life in prison as an admitted murderer without possibility of parole could be in some ways a worse punishment than death," said Douglas Vaught, the Grayson County commonwealth's attorney. As Hammer begins his sentence, Ashe County deputies should look anew at the two other cases. The first is the disappearance and presumed death of Hammer's nephew, Jimmy Blevins. Hammer was the last person seen with Blevins before he disappeared in February 2007.
Blevins once worked for Hammer's firewood business, and had said that Hammer owed him more than $1,600 in back wages. Blevins had asked about how to take Hammer to court to get him to pay. One man said that Hammer heard about Blevins' plan and said, "If he goes and does something like that, little Jimmy will disappear and little Jimmy will never be found," Mitchell reported last year in a Journal series, "The Murders at Grassy Creek."
The link to Hammer in the second case is weaker. Tim Shatley was fatally shot on Nov. 19, 2005, on a bridge just a few hundred yards from Blevins' home. Some people, including some of Blevins' relatives, believe Hammer had something to do with Shatley's killing and got rid of Blevins to silence him, Mitchell reported last year.
In court last week, Hammer repeated his assertion that he wasn't involved in Blevins' disappearance or Shatley's slaying. But until his own life was on the line, he denied involvement in the tree-farm murders.
Ashe County Sheriff James Williams said last week that authorities would continue pursuing the Blevins and Shatley cases "with everything we've got." We applaud that effort, whether the trail leads to Hammer or elsewhere.
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