Select by gender or name

Crime

Williams Brock allegedly received scam phone calls on the morning of March 25, 2024, in which someone claimed a relative had a car accident that left a pregnant woman injured. The caller claimed the relative needed $24,000 for bond money. However, they later cut the number in half.

When Brock started asking questions, the people on the phone threatened to harm him if he didn’t hand over the money. They told him that an Acura would be arriving to pick up the money.

Brock soon looked out and saw the car in the driveway of his home in Springfield, Ohio.

61-year-old Lo-Letha Toland-Hall was the driver, and she was seen on the dashcam getting out of her car, walking past the front of her car, and approaching the residence.

Moments later, she was seen walking past the front of her vehicle again, but this time, she was being held at gunpoint by then 81-year-old William Brock.

He thought Hall was in on the scam and didn’t want her to leave, but in reality, she was just an Uber driver who was picking up a package.

When she tried to get in her car, he shot her in the leg. He followed her around the vehicle as she screamed for help and begged for her life.

He asked her who she worked for. She responded that she worked for Uber and even showed him her phone screen to prove it. Eventually, he got sick of talking and fired five more shots to finish her off.

He contacted the authorities to report the shooting of a robber. Once the police arrived, they detained Brock while he told them about the scammers who were contacting him all morning. He had a noticeable head injury as Hall had injured him while fighting for her life.

As the police processed the scene, they got a call from the scammers. It would have been a perfect opportunity to perform a sting operation, but the cops messed up by telling the scammers that Hall had been in an “accident.”

Meanwhile, Hall was rushed to the hospital, where she passed away.

Investigation

APNews reported that Hall was unarmed and had no idea that Brock was receiving scam calls demanding money when she was sent by Uber to pick up a package from the home and his claims of self defense fell apart.

According to APNews, Brock was indicted on April 15th, 2024, on charges of murder, felonious assault, and kidnapping. Two days later, he was released on $200,000 bail.

Legal Proceedings

Post Conviction Motion & Support

According to WHIO, Brock’s attorney, John Paul Rion, filed a motion for an acquittal or a new trial days after his conviction. He claimed the jury lacked a proper understanding of Ohio’s Castle Doctrine, which states that individuals have no duty to retreat if they are in a place they have a legal right to be, such as inside their own home.

Rion said that Hall entered a covered porch area of Brock’s home without permission, and Brock had no duty to retreat. He also claimed that the state had a duty to prove Hall “was not unlawfully at Brock’s residence” but didn’t do so.

Sentencing