Gregory Scott Hale allegedly killed and dismembered a woman near the Bledsoe County, Tenn., home he lived in on Pete Sain Road near Manchester, Tenn.
Gregory Scott HaleThe man charged in the grisly June 2014 slaying and cannibalism in Coffee County, Tenn., of a 36-year-old Sequatchie Valley mother was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Gregory Scott Hale, 38, who prosecutors say considers himself a Satanist, was charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse last June after Lisa Marie Poore Hyder's dismembered and burned body was found behind Hale's parent's home in Summitville, east of Manchester, Tenn.
Hale was sentenced Thursday on a guilty plea to a charge of first-degree murder in Coffee County Circuit Court before Judge Craig Johnson.
District Attorney Craig Northcott said Hyder's father, Billy Poore, and her ex-husband, Charles Hyder, attended the hearing Thursday and were pleased with how the case was resolved.
"They certainly would have supported the death penalty, as well," Northcott said, adding that he was prepared to seek the death penalty if the case went to trial. "But they didn't want to give Mr. Hale the opportunity to be the center of attention, which was what he was relishing out of this."
An indictment in the case was handed down Tuesday night, he said. An agreement had already been reached for a sentence of life without parole.
Hale had some disturbing fantasies involving killing and cannibalism, Northcott said.
"He definitely has a fascination with the occult, and I do believe he considers himself a Satan worshipper. There's all kinds of evidence of that gathered at his residence and on his computer," Northcott said.
"He said he fantasized about killing someone for a long time and saw this as an opportunity to fulfill that fantasy," the district attorney said. Northcott said Hale never really explained why he cannibalized Hyder's body.
"He said he'd always fantasized about eating human flesh," he said.
Hyder was said to have been living in the area of Dunlap and Pikeville in the Sequatchie Valley and to have been staying with friends in Coffee County during the two weeks or so leading up to her murder on June 6, 2014.
Family members could not be reached for this story, but Hyder's father told Huntsville, Ala., television station WAAY-TV shortly after his daughter's slaying last year that there was nothing left of her body.
"My daughter was mangled, butchered and chopped up like a liver," the grieving father said last June.
During the initial investigation, Coffee County Sheriff's Office Capt. Frank Watkins said that Hale and Hyder met each other the day of the slaying at a local liquor store.
"Best we can tell, it was a random meeting and, the best we can tell so far is that they had no connection until that day," Watkins said. The pair left the store and went to the house on Pete Sain Road where Hale lived.
Investigators recovered a machete, ax and knife at the home that Hale used to dismember Hyder's body after he strangled her to death. Officers found Hale asleep on the couch the day he was arrested.
Investigators first learned something was wrong after an acquaintance of Hale's contacted authorities about his seeking help to dispose of the body.
"[Hale] tried to solicit the help of an individual he knew and [the acquaintance] flat refused," Watkins said last summer.
The acquaintance told authorities he thought Hale was joking at first "but he said something about it jumped out at him," Watkins said. The man's quick report led officers to the shocking discovery.
Affidavits filed in Coffee County General Sessions Court last June describe grisly details.
"After murdering the victim, [Hale] beheaded her and cut off her hands, placing them in another bucket, and buried the victim's torso in a burn pile at the residence," the affidavits state. "[Hale] also admitted to eating part of the victim after murdering her."
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.