(AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the death
sentence of a man who killed an elderly couple near Land Between the Lakes
after he escaped from a Kentucky prison.
William Eugene Hall was convicted of first-degree felony murder for his
role in the 1988 killings of Buford and Myrtle Vester. The couple was found
shot and stabbed outside their home, and their car and other belongings
were missing.
Hall was one of eight inmates who escaped from the Kentucky State
Penitentiary on June 16, 1988. Five of the escapees’ stole a pickup truck
and drove over the state line into Tennessee and began a series of
burglaries. Hall was later captured in Texas, and he and two other escapees
were convicted of killing the Vesters.
