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Inset: William Brock booking photo Clark County Sheriff’s Office. Background: YouTube screengrab from NBC affiliate WDTN-TV shows Brock, right, pointing a gun at Loletha Hall moments before allegedly shooting her multiple times.
In a tragic turn of events in Ohio, an 83-year-old man is destined to spend his remaining years in prison after mistakenly killing a 61-year-old Uber driver. Both individuals had unwittingly fallen victim to the same phone scam, leading to a fatal misunderstanding outside the man’s home.
On Monday, William J. Brock was sentenced by Clark County Common Pleas Judge Douglas M. Rastatter to 21 years to life in a state correctional facility. This decision came after Brock was found guilty of several charges, including felony murder, felony assault, and kidnapping, related to the 2024 shooting of Loletha Hall. The sentence includes 15 years to life for the murder conviction, plus an additional six years for firearm-related charges, all to be served consecutively, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
The sentencing was initially set for Friday but had to be postponed after one of Brock’s defense attorneys fainted during the proceedings. The incident added another layer of drama to an already poignant case.
Despite the conviction, the orchestrators of the scam that led to this tragedy remain at large, a point that prosecutors highlighted during and after the trial. Clark County Prosecutor Daniel Driscoll expressed hope for future justice, emphasizing the shared loss felt by both families involved. “Both families have lost loved ones because of this, and there are no winners here,” Driscoll stated last month. He further lamented, “The really sad part about this is that we know that the scammers, the folks who started this, haven’t been brought to justice. And hopefully one day the FBI will bring those folks and we’ll be able to prosecute them right here in Clark County for what they did.”
“Both families have lost loved ones because of this, and there are no winners here,” Clark County Prosecutor Daniel Driscoll said last month. “The really sad part about this is that we know that the scammers, the folks who started this, haven’t been brought to justice. And hopefully one day the FBI will bring those folks and we’ll be able to prosecute them right here in Clark County for what they did.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the fatal incident took place in front of Brock’s residence in South Charleston at 11:18 a.m. on March 25, 2024. That morning, Hall — an Uber driver for more than a decade — accepted what she believed was a legitimate assignment from the ride-share company directing her to pick up a package for delivery at Brock’s home.
Unbeknownst to Hall, the same person or people who directed her to Brock’s home had also contacted Brock, threatening to kill his family unless he gave $12,000 cash to a woman matching Hall’s description.
Footage from a dashcam inside Hall’s Acura shows her approaching Brock’s home, getting out of her car and engaging with Brock before attempting to leave the home. But Brock trailed her closely, pointing his .22 caliber revolver at her and at one point, taking her phone away from her so she could not make any outgoing calls.
“Ms. Hall, unfamiliar with the circumstances which had occurred, arrived and made contact with Mr. Brock,” investigators wrote in an incident report.
Hall made no demands of Brock, according to police, and only asked him about the package she was meant to pick up. Brock started making demands about her identity and that’s when he took her phone and refused to allow her to leave. During the encounter, Brock “made no attempts to summon help or call 911 for assistance,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“Ms. Hall attempted to re-enter her vehicle to leave the property and escape, during which time she was shot by Mr. Brock, and Mr. Brock was injured in the subsequent scuffle at the door of Ms. Hall’s vehicle,” the incident report said. “Further exchange took place between them, after which Mr. Brock shot Ms. Hall again, and after further exchange, shot her again a third, separate, time.”
It was not until after the shooting that Brock called 911. During the call, Hall could reportedly be heard in the background repeatedly saying, “Help me.”
While both Brock and Hall were victims of the scammers, Brock’s claim of self-defense ultimately fell apart because Hall was defenseless and posed no threat before he shot her six times.
“Objectively, a reasonable person would not shoot a defenseless woman multiple times to protect themselves from the words of a scammer,” Assistant Clark County Prosecutor Kadawni Scott told jurors during his opening statements, according to the Springfield News-Sun. “The act doesn’t justify the act of taking a life of another, because words scared him?”