Judge puts Topix murder-for-hire suspect on house arrest following hearing

A Corbin man, who allegedly offered $5,000 on a website to have someone killed last year, has been placed on home incarceration and must wear an ankle-monitoring device until his August trial, a judge ruled Thursday morning.

Tristan James Hall, 30, is charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder.

According to his indictment, on Jan. 10, 2013, Hall allegedly advertised on the popular website Topix that he would pay someone $5,000 cash for the murder of Melissa Jones Davis and the concealment of her body.

"With everything that has happened, I think it is best for everybody concerned, including Mr. Hall, that he be placed on home incarceration at his grandmother’s house with an ankle bracelet until we come back here for trial on Aug. 6. I think that would benefit your client with all the fingers pointed at him," Circuit Judge Paul Winchster told defense attorney Warren Scoville towards the close of the hearing.

Hall was in court Thursday morning after Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Stephens filed a motion on May 6 to restrict Hall’s bond conditions.

In the motion, Stephens had asked Winchester for an order either placing Hall in custody pending trial or at a minimum requiring him to wear ankle-monitor with a global positioning system device attached.

The grounds for the motion dealt with a speeding ticket that Hall received on Feb. 8, 2014, at 2:38 a.m., and the fact that Hall wasn’t currently living where he told the court that he planned to live shortly after he was indicted last summer.

In addition, Stephen’s motion makes reference to two incidents discussed during an April 29 hearing in Hall’s case.

During the April 29 hearing, Winchester advised attorneys for both sides that on April 23, a young lady rang his doorbell and handed him an eight-page stack of documents telling him, "that is for your information."

Winchester said that the woman then left.

"I really believe this was from Mr. Hall," Winchester said during the April 29 hearing noting that he didn’t see Hall there. "This document doesn’t relate to any other case I have had."

The first page was a story from a website that discussed how police broke down the door of an Evansville, Indiana, woman after someone used her wireless router to post anonymous online threats on the website Topix.com.

The other seven pages dealt with a federal court decision dealing with Internet IP addresses.

In Hall’s case, Kentucky State Police Trooper Jay Sowders, from Post 10 in Harlan, began the investigation when troopers were contacted by Jones about the post that appeared on the popular Topix website on Jan. 10, 2013.

The post, which was made by an individual who identified him/herself as, "serious as a heart attack," offered the money in exchange for the murder of Jones and concealment of her body.

According to the arrest warrant, the individual, whom police say was Hall, offered to pay half of the money up front and the other half, "once the job is complete."

At a preliminary hearing last year, KSP Detective Richie Baxter testified that a search warrant was issued for the IP (internet protocol) address of the individual who posted the message. The IP address came back to a Time Warner Internet account owned by Hall.

Also during the April 29 hearing, Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble provided the court with a picture of a message written on his office window that said, "SCR 3.130(A) – T.H."

The "SCR 3.130" reference left on Trimble’s office window coincides with a Kentucky Supreme Court Rule regarding Kentucky rules of professional conduct and the practice of law, according to the Kentucky Bar Association’s website.

"What this case is about, Mr. Hall is charged with threatening a woman’s life. Using a computer, he placed a hit offering money to have someone killed. I don’t think we should lose sight of all that," Stephens said during Thursday’s hearing.

"Certainly he is innocent until proven guilty but even that considered you have to protect the public. You have to protect the victim. You have to protect every discipline of this court system. You have to protect all of us from those who would break the law."

When Hall was indicted last June, his bond conditions initially called for him to be on home incarceration, have no computer, and have no contact with the victim.

Stephens noted part of the court’s consideration in not placing him on an ankle-monitoring device at that time dealt with the fact that Hall was planning to move to Knoxville where he planned to purse a law degree at the University of Tennessee.

"Sort of slowly as we have gone along, the defendant has whittled away at bond conditions," Stephens noted.

When Hall got the speeding ticket, the address he gave wasn’t a Knoxville address but a Corbin address.

"That is not the Knoxville, Tennessee address where he told the court he was," Stephens said.

During the hearing, Stephens also made reference to a computer aided dispatch (CAD) report from the 911 center that indicated Hall called 911 on May 7 advising that a woman had just busted out the window of his truck and he gave a 424 Rains Street, Williamsburg address at that time.

Stephens said that Hall "has no proper respect for the position he is in" accused of a crime, and that he is not "abiding as one should abide while on bond."

Winchester noted the original bond conditions and that house arrest and other conditions were lifted when Hall asked for permission to enroll at the University of Tennessee.

"It appears to the court he has not been residing where he told the court he was going to be," Winchester said.

Scoville responded that when Hall got the speeding ticket, he took it to the county attorney and got the charge amended down to speeding 9 mph over the limit. He said Hall then paid the fine.

Scoville said that in his 37 years of practicing law, he has never known of someone’s bond being amended or revoked because of a speeding ticket.

Scoville contended that Hall getting the speeding ticket at 2 a.m. was no big deal either because some people, like him, go to bed early at 9 p.m., while others stay up late and sleep late.

Scoville said that Hall went to Knoxville to take a 16-week school to prepare him for the LSAT, which is the entrance exam for law school. Hall plans to attend law school this fall at the University of Dayton.

Scoville said that if court officials didn’t have the Knoxville address where Hall resided while he was taking the LSAT course, as Stephens at one point contended, then it was his fault and not his client’s fault because he thought it had been provided to the court.

Scoville agreed that it is suspicious someone would scrawl a message on the commonwealth attorney’s office window alluding to misconduct and sign it "T.H."

He also agreed that it was suspicious that someone delivered the documents to the judge’s home.

"There is absolutely no proof that Mr. Hall did that," Scoville said.

Scoville said that he wishes Hall had been on an ankle-monitoring device then because everyone would know now that he wasn’t responsible.

"He tells me he did not do those things," Scoville said.

Scoville unsuccessfully argued that his client be placed on an ankle-monitoring device but not on home incarceration pending the trial.

"I do think the commonwealth has a week case as evidenced by the letter from Time Warner that simply says the message came from Mr. Hall’s router but we can’t say who sent the message. That is going to be circumstantial evidence."

Hall currently isn’t employed. He is taking two classes online for a master’s degree and is residing with his grandmother and renovating an old house for her.

Scoville and Stephens sparred several times during the hearing, including once when Stephens said that Hall had been sighted at numerous bars. Scoville called this a gross exaggeration and said it was one bar and maybe two.

"It is still not against the law to go to a bar," Scoville said.

Stephens said there are special circumstances in Hall’s case, such as the fact he is accused of threatening a woman’s life.
Stephens asked Winchester to order Hall to provide proof that he had taken the LSAT course in Knoxville, but the judge didn’t grant Stephens’ request.

"It just seems we are wanting to whip on Mr. Hall as much as we can," Scoville said.

"We want the truth," Stephens responded.