The case against an accused cop-killer is progressing.

A Pike County Grand Jury issued a 5-count indictment Wednesday against 55-year-old John Russell Hall, of Hurricane Creek Road near Pikeville, charging him with the murder of Pikeville Police Officer Scotty Hamilton. According to the five-count indictment against Hall, he is charged with shooting Hamilton on March 13, resulting in the officer’s death.

Hall is also charged with two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, receiving stolen property and being a persistent felony offender in the second-degree. According to the indictment, the stolen property charge is in relation to firearms Hall possessed or disposed of that had been stolen.

In a separate indictment, the grand jury also charged four people with harboring Hall after he allegedly killed Officer Scotty Hamilton.

According to that indictment, 37-year-old Amanda Dotson, 39-year-old Michael Slone, 44-year-old Jeanne Blackburn and 54-year-old Gregory D. Slone each face a felony charge of hindering prosecution or apprehension in the first degree.
The four are accused of assisting Hall in eluding police following Hamilton’s murder.

Court documents said Dotson and Michael Slone picked up Hall following Hamilton’s death and drove him to Gregory Slone’s residence. Court documents said Jeanne Blackburn was at that residence at the time, and all four knew Hall was wanted in connection to Hamilton’s death. Gregory Hall was also charged with first-degree promoting contraband and being a persistent felony offender in the first degree.

All four, and Hall as well, are currently lodged in the Pike County Detention Center.

In a rare move, the grand jury, which convened earlier Wednesday morning, returned the indictments against Hall and the others to Pike Circuit Judge Eddy Coleman before breaking for lunch. Typically the day’s indictments would be returned to the judge at the end of the day.

Pike Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Bartley declined to comment on the indictments handed down in relation to Hamilton’s death. At this point, there has been no indication about what degree of penalty Bartley’s office will seek in the case against Hall. According to the indictment, the murder charge Hall is facing is a capital offense.

Scotty Hamilton was a 12-year veteran of the Pikeville Police Department. A husband and a father of an infant baby girl, Hamilton was 35 years old when he was killed in the line of duty.

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