A Toccoa man arrested for murdering his wife three years ago has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 60 years. The sentence, handed down Monday by Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Chan Caudell, is meant to ensure the 51-year-old Hall will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Following a six-day trial, a Stephens County jury convicted Hall of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, and two counts of aggravated assault. The charges stem from a brutal September 2019 attack on his wife, Patricia, and a Toccoa couple that was sheltering her.
Mountain Judicial Circuit Chief Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Boykin prosecuted the case, along with Assistant District Attorney Rebecca James.
The case was handled by Special Agent Shilo Crane of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the Toccoa Police Department.
Patricia Hall sought refuge
Toccoa police officers apprehended Hall on September 24, 2019, hours after his wife’s body was found in a heavily wooded area off East Franklin Street in Toccoa.
Prosecutors say Hall stabbed Patricia Hall to death after kidnapping her from a home on Mill Street on September 23, 2019. She had left him earlier in the day following an argument. Police say 64-year-old old Robert Maxwell and 66-year-old Nancy Johnson were trying to protect Patricia from her husband when he stabbed them and abducted his wife.
Maxwell and Johnson both survived the attacks.
“Robert Maxwell was very lucky to survive,” says Boykin. “He was in the hospital from September 23, 2019, until December of that year. He had four trauma surgeons operate on him the night he was stabbed.”
Kenton Hall was on probation at the time of the attacks. He was convicted in Franklin County in 2016 of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and given five years probation. Boykin says he had a criminal history of mostly theft cases out of Florida and Georgia.
Toccoa Police Chief Jimmy Mize says the prosecution delivered a “well-presented case.”
“This case is one that shows great cooperation within the departments that were involved from the GBI, our officers, and the sheriff’s office,” Mize says.
Boykin expressed her gratitude to Special Agent Shilo for his hard work investigating the case and to the jurors.
“I am very grateful to the jury for seeing that Mr. Maxwell, Ms. Johnson, and the family of Patricia Hall received justice.”
