Hammer pleads guilty to murder charges

INDEPENDENCE, Va. - Frederick Phillip "Freddie" Hammer, 49, of Crumpler was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, along with two more life terms Friday in Grayson County, Va., after pleading guilty to three murders at a Mount of Wilson Christmas tree farm on Jan. 24, 2008. Hammer was also ordered to pay fines totaling $600,000 and serve additional prison terms totaling 23 years.

Hammer had been charged with the murders of Ron Hudler, 73; his son, Fred Hudler, 44; and John Steven Miller, 25, at the elder Hudler's home and farm. The three had been shot with a .22 magnum rifle.

The announcement was made last week by Grayson County Commonwealth's Attorney Douglas Vaught and Grayson County Sheriff Richard Vaughan, who said Hammer appeared in Grayson County Circuit Court shortly after 10 a.m. and entered guilty pleas in five counts of capital murder, one count of robbery, one county of breaking and entering a building attached to real estate with the intent to commit larceny while armed with a deadly weapon, one count of grand larceny and one county of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Under the terms of a written plea agreement, seven charges based upon alternative theories of the facts and law and multiple charges of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony were removed from the docket.

Hammer entered the guilty pleas after investigators found one of the weapons used in the crime, along with some of the money taken from Ron Hudler, in a barn in Cripple Creek that is owned by an acquaintance of Hammer.

The Grayson County Sheriff's Department, assisted by the Giles County Sheriff's Department, Wythe County Sheriff's Department and Ashe County (N.C.) Sheriff's Department obtained permission to search and found the items in a location identified by a fellow inmate. Hammer had told the inmate the location of the money and weapon and had agreed to give the inmate $2,000 for digging up and moving the weapon and money, according to regional press reports. Those reports stated that the fellow inmate wrote information about 'coming into some money' in a letter that was thrown in the trash rather than mailed. When authorities questioned the inmate about the letter, he told them about Hammer's offer, the media reports stated. The serial number on the .22 magnum rifle matched those of a rifle sold to Hammer in the mid-1990s. It was found under rolls of heavy woven wire fencing. Attached to the rifle was a broken scope with damage.