GRAYSON COUNTY, Va. -- An Ashe County man facing capital-murder charges in connection with a triple killing at a Grayson County Christmas-tree farm pleaded guilty this morning to five counts of capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Freddie Hammer, 48, of Crumpler, took the plea in the shooting deaths of the owner of a Christmas-tree farm, Ron Hudler, 73; his son Fred Hudler, 44; and farm worker John Miller Jr., 25. In addition to the life sentence, he was fined $600,000.
In court, he apologized to the victims' families.
"What happened that day should not have happened, and I'm sorry,'' he said. "I went there with the intention of doing a burglary … it was going to be in and out.''
Authorities said that Hammer killed the three men when he was interrupted while trying to steal a safe from a garage next to Ron Hudler's home.
Investigators said that it appeared as if someone tried to load the safe onto a truck, but abandoned it after opening it with two keys. An undisclosed amount of cash was missing.
Hammer was arrested two days after the killings and has been held with no bond allowed in the New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin, Va.
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