Defendants Admit to Roles in Fatal Kidnapping Conspiracy
Five southwest Missouri residents have pleaded guilty in federal court to their roles in a kidnapping conspiracy that resulted in the death of the victim. The defendants, Amy Kay Thomas, Lawrence William Vaughan, Carla Jo Ward, James B. Gibson, and Russell Eugene Hurtt, each admitted to participating in the conspiracy to kidnap the victim, identified as ‘M.H.’ in July 2020.
According to court documents, Ward picked up M.H. and took him to Vaughan’s residence, where Thomas and Gibson arrived in the early morning hours of July 15, 2020. They bound M.H.’s hands with handcuffs and duct tape was placed around his mouth and other parts of his body. Thomas cut M.H. repeatedly with a knife, while Gibson beat him with a club and burned him with a blowtorch. M.H. was fatally shot in the head and his body was wrapped in plastic wrap and transported to Hurtt’s property.
Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Hurtt’s property on July 28, 2020, after receiving information that a deceased body was located on the acreage. When officers attempted to contact the occupants of the residence, a co-conspirator fired multiple shots from inside the residence at the officers before being apprehended. Officers found M.H.’s body on the property, as well as multiple firearms, including a disassembled HR1871 12-gauge shotgun with a sawed-off butt and a shotgun barrel inside a box. A burned cell phone was also found, which contained photos and screen shots from a video of M.H. being assaulted.
Each of the five defendants is subject to a sentence of up to life in federal prison without parole, as prescribed by federal statutes. The sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the FBI, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, the Neosho Police Department, the Joplin Police Department, and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department.
This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation, which identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Program is a joint federal, state, local, and tribal effort to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the highest-level drug trafficking and other organized crime networks and their most significant offenders. The OCDETF Program was established in 1982 to coordinate federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies in their efforts to combat organized crime.
Related Federal Cases
- Webb City Woman Sentenced to 20 Years for Kidnapping Conspiracy, Torture · Missouri
- Webb City Woman Sentenced to 20 Years for Kidnapping Conspiracy and Gun Charge · Missouri
- Springfield Man Sentenced to 78 Months for Conspiracy to Traffic Firearms · Arizona
- Kendal “KD” White, Home Invasion and Kidnapping, St. Louis MO, 2023 · Indiana
- Terence Thomas Sentenced · Iowa
Key Facts
- State: Missouri
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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