A Sterling man will be sentenced for murder Thursday, May 3, at 9 a.m., at the courthouse in Leesburg.
Daunteril Hall, 29, was convicted of first-degree murder in the January 2005 killing of Sherine Williams, 24, who was pistol whipped, shot and slashed in the throat.
Hall was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, April 5, but minutes before that, Hall asked Judge Thomas D. Horne to withdraw his plea, making him eligible for the death penalty. He said he misunderstood sentencing guidelines, was unhappy with his counsel, Jud Fishel, and shouldn’t go to prison for something, he said, he didn’t do.
Horne dismissed Hall’s attempt to withdraw his plea, but Fishel withdrew as his council.
Corinne Magee, Fishel’s co-counsel, took over the case, and after several hours of talking with Hall’s friends and family in preparation for the remainder of the trial, requested a continuance, which Horne granted to her.
HALL BECAME a suspect shortly after Williams’ body was found by family members on the bathroom floor of her Reserve Falls Terrace apartment in Sterling, Jan. 23, 2005.
Hall fled the area to Canton, Ohio, where a police officer recognized him and arrested him six days after the murder.
Hall appeared to be facing a possible death sentence, but in December 2006, he decided to enter an Alford plea, which does not admit guilt but acknowledges that prosecutors probably have enough evidence to convict him. Under the plea, Hall could face up to 75 years in prison.