Hall enters blind plea to child abuse charges

Floyd County Times, The (Prestonsburg, KY)

Article Text:

Ansel Hall, 31, of Branham's Creek, decided to enter a guilty plea Monday to 13 charges of first-degree criminal abuse and one charge of first-degree wanton endangerment rather than face a jury and his wife.

Assistant Common-wealth's Attorney Wayne Taylor was set to pick a jury when Hall decided to enter the plea before the jurors could be impaneled. The case would have been tough for a jury to hear, as it involved brutal beatings administered to the foster child that Hall and his wife Georgia had taken in.

The story began in June 2002 when the Halls became foster parents. Ansel was impatient with the child and soon began to abuse the 12-year-old. He also employed various weapons for the abuse, often using a horse whip, a cattle prod and a specially designed paddle to beat the child for the slightest infraction.

The abuse came to a head on Jan. 30, 2003, when the child accidentally damaged Hall's all-terrain vehicle. Georgia Hall, who also had allegedly suffered many beatings from Ansel Hall, warned the child to escape.

The youngster left the home at night and journeyed for miles without a winter coat and eventually stumbled upon a home. There a couple tried to help the child and eventually summoned a friend with medical experience. The friend won the child over and heard the stories of abuse. They took the boy to McDowell ARH and doctors treated the wounds and took pictures of the victim's many abrasions, welts and scars.

Troopers arrived at the hospital and interviewed the child and saw the evidence that the doctors had collected. They summoned the foster parents to the hospital, but only Georgia Hall showed up. She was evasive about the wounds and was promptly arrested.

The Troopers got to the Halls' residence with a search warrant at 2:30 a.m. Ansel Hall explained that the child fell off the four-wheeler and got the injuries from the accident. The troopers noted that response and executed the warrant, finding all of the torture tools that the victim had described exactly where they were said to be.

When the troopers recovered the whip, Ansel Hall reportedly became anxious and stammered, "Please don't whip me."

The Halls posted bond within days of the charges and soon found lawyer Steve Owens to represent them. Later Georgia Hall found her own representation and went to the prosecutor to offer to testify in the case.

Wayne Taylor commended Georgia Hall, saying, "She did the right thing by coming in. She had failed to protect the victim in the past, but she saved the victim from having to relive the events during testimony."

Taylor explained that Georgia Hall's reluctance to help the child was motivated by her own fear of Ansel Hall, saying, "She was totally terrified of him."

Running away from the home when the child did may have saved his life. Taylor also noted that the victim had been threatened by Ansel Hall at gunpoint the day before escaping, when Ansel Hall had disciplined the child by battering him with the gun and firing it into the air over the child's head.

Ansel Hall has entered a blind plea, which means that Judge Danny Caudill can sentence him as he sees fit.

Ansel Hall was originally offered a 10-year sentence by the commonwealth but rejected that offer and chose the trial route. Now he could face a longer sentence should Caudill decide to make any sentence consecutive.

Regardless of how sentencing goes, Taylor is happy with the plea for the present.

"Now we won't have to put the victim through the ordeal of testifying," Taylor said. "It was a good resolution."