Laura Ashley Hall has been found guilty of evidence tampering for her role in the post-mortem dismemberment of 21-year-old Jennifer Cave.
The jury found Hall not guilty of the felony charge of hindering apprehension, instead issuing a guilty verdict for a lesser misdemeanor charge.
Hall, 24, will be sentenced on Tuesday facing a penalty between two to 10 years in prison for the third-degree felony charge of tampering with physical evidence and one year for hindering apprehension, a class A misdemeanor.
Hall was charged for assisting convicted killer Colton Pitonyak elude police by taking him to Mexico in her Cadillac. Pitonyak was convicted in January and is currently serving out a 55-year sentence.
The jury took a full day to decide on Hall's verdict. Jurors deliberated late into Thursday night and reconvened at 9 a.m. this morning. The jury announced its verdict just before 4 p.m. this afternoon.
Hall showed no emotion while the foreman read the verdict. Soon afterwards, the Cave family quickly left the courthouse while Hall's family remained in the court room, embracing and comforting her.
On August 17, 2005, Pitonyak fatally shot Cave inside his West Campus apartment. Cave's body was then partially mutilated and dismembered. The body was left in Pitonyak's bathtub and the severed limbs were placed in plastic bags, in what appeared to be an aborted attempt to dispose of her remains.
Pitonyak said during his trial that he did not remember killing Cave because of a drug and alcohol-related stupor, however he was certain he had been the one to shoot her.
Later that day, Hall drove Pitonyak to Mexico playing in what the prosecution had characterized as playing Bonnie to his Clyde. They crossed the border early the next morning and traveled to Piedras Negras, where they stayed in a motel. Mexican authorities expelled Pitonyak and Hall from the country on August 24 to Eagle Pass, where police apprehended him. Hall was not arrested at the time.
During the deliberation, a difference in opinion caused the jury to review DNA testimony. Forensic investigators found no DNA from Hall on any of the weapons used to decapitate Cave, but did find trace amounts of her DNA on a sandal belonging to Cave which lay in the same bathroom as her body.
Throughout the trial several witnesses testified to the lack of remorse Hall had shown for Cave's death. They said Hall referred to Cave pejoratively as "that fucking waitress ho" while in prison and called her "a nobody." Multiple witnesses also said she had told them of her role in Cave's dismemberment, particularly how she had to motivate the doped-up Pitonyak into action.
One witness, Henrietta Langenbach, a cell mate of Hall's for three months, said Hall told her of a shopping list for tools needed to dispose of Cave's body, which Pitonyak used at a campus-area hardware store to purchase a hacksaw, among other items.
During his trial, Pitonyak said Hall was solely responsible for the post-mortem mutilation.
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