Takoma Park Woman's Killer Sent Back To Prison: Prosecutor

ANNAPOLIS, MD — A 62-year-old man who spent about 40 years in prison for killing a Takoma Park woman in 1976 is going back behind bars after violating his probation, the top prosecutor in Anne Arundel County announced Wednesday. On Monday, Dec. 17, in the Anne Arundel Circuit Court, Kirk Jon Hall was sentenced once again to life in prison for first-degree murder, according to State's Attorney Wes Adams.

Hall was released in 2016 from his life sentence after filing an appeal and getting a new trial. He pleaded guilty, and Circuit Court Judge Laura Ripken gave him another life sentence, but she suspended all but 50 years and added five years of supervised probation, Adams said in a statement.

A resident of the Baltimore neighborhood of Brooklyn, Hall violated the terms of his probation three different times, Adams said. He was charged with theft on July 29, 2017, and Sept. 5 of this year, and then arrested on Nov. 2 for possession of heroin and cocaine.

In a hearing Monday, Ripken sent Hall back to prison to serve the remainder of his life sentence.

Hall received a "just sentence" after an Anne Arundel County jury convicted him in 1977 for the murder of Barbara Watts, 26, of Takoma Park, Adams said in the statement.

"He was the beneficiary of an appellate decision that granted him a second chance," Adams said. "Since being released, he has proven on numerous occasions that he is either unwilling or unable to conduct himself as a law-abiding member of society."

On the morning of Oct. 31, 1976, Anne Arundel County police officers found the body of Barbara Watts on vacant land in a rural part of the county. She had been shot multiple times, according to the statement.

The police identified her with a paycheck they found in Watts' purse and notified her family in Takoma Park, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Police detectives eventually found evidence that linked Hall to the shooting.

For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.

Image: Shutterstock