Sentencing hearing begins for Jeremy Hall in Billy Mason homicide

Jeremy Hall took the witness stand on Monday, the first day of his sentencing hearing.

Hall was convicted earlier this year of shooting Billy Mason to death with a shotgun in 2006 and burning his body.

He was found guilty of first-degree murder in the case in 2013, but the verdict was overturned in 2019 and a new trial ordered. On Jan. 5, a Hamilton judge found Hall guilty of second-degree murder.

Now, Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman must assign a punishment.

The focus of Monday's hearing was on the length of time Hall had spent in segregation - and the reasons for it - while in custody.

Hall's lawyer, Dirk Derstine, asked how bad" segregation was in the provincial system.

It's terrible, man.," Hall replied. It turned me. I would punch walls just to punch walls."

Was that how you were before you started going into segregation so much?" his lawyer asked.

No," Hall replied, describing himself as pretty open."

I've got a great sense of humour," he said. I love to laugh. I love to make people laugh."

Hall wore a navy sweater, black track pants and grey sneakers, legs bound by shackles. Tattoos cover his shaved head.

Derstine asked his client whether he made any attempts to get out of segregation.

Of course I tried to get out of segregation," Hall responded. I tried dozens of times."

Cross-examination by assistant Crown attorney Mark Dean, who detailed Hall's history of misconduct while in custody, began around noon.

Several times during cross-examination Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman warned the Crown not to go too far into the minutiae of the agreed statement of facts" from previous trial.

But Dean said the circumstances for Hall being put into segregation - allegations of misconduct, including assaults on other inmates and, at one point, for his own safety, a protection he requested when he was younger, among others - extremely relevant."

In 2011, Kelvin Sawa, an inmate at Niagara Detention Centre in Thorold charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy, hanged himself after being beaten by fellow inmates.

One of those inmates was Hall, who testified he beat the man so badly his face looked like popcorn."

Since 2018, Hall committed three assaults that resulted in segregation, Dean said, referring to records.

Hall agreed that some of the periods of segregation were warranted. Others he described as a copy-and-paste situation" in which a review board would use past misconduct to place him in a unit.

Some of the segregation was justifiable, but the major majority of it was not," he said.

The sentencing hearing continues on Tuesday.

Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter covering education at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com