The former owner of Bill Hall Jr. Trucking recently received a slap on the wrist for a multimillion-dollar workers’ compensation fraud scheme nearly 10 years after she received the lightest possible sentence for killing her husband.

Austin, Texas’ 147th District Court sentenced Frances Hall to years deferred adjudication, $150,000 in restitution and ordered to undergo treatment per probation department recommendations. Deferred adjudication avoids both a conviction and jail time upon completion of community supervision.

According to the Texas Department of Insurance, Hall devised a scheme that allowed Bill Hall Jr. Trucking and its owner to avoid more than $9 million in insurance premium payments. Between 2009 and 2016, Hall provided false payroll information to Texas Mutual Insurance Company. She also hid payroll reports in order to pay lower insurance premiums for the trucking company’s gravel-hauling business.

In August 2022, Hall turned herself in to Bexar County authorities after a warrant for her arrest was issued on June 30 of that year. In May, Hall entered a plea agreement.

“The Texas workers’ compensation system is funded through premiums that employers pay,” Travis County prosecutor Jessica Bergeman said in a statement. “The system relies on the integrity of all who participate to ensure that workers’ compensation is viable and able to protect injured workers.”

Hall faced up to life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Murder conviction

This is not Hall’s first experience with criminal charges. She was charged and convicted of killing her husband in 2016.

In 2013, Hall was involved in a high-speed chase on Loop 1604 with her husband, Bill Hall, and his mistress, according to KSAT. Bill Hall was in front riding his motorcycle, with his mistress behind him in a Range Rover owned by the Halls. Frances Hall was chasing both in a Cadillac Escalade.

During the pursuit, Frances Hall had rammed into the Range Rover and forced her husband off the road. Bill Hall died as a result of the crash. Frances Hall contends it was an accident and that she did not know that she had run her husband off the road.

In 2016, Frances Hall was found guilty of murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Texas law has a mandatory sentence of five to 99 years or life in prison for murder.

However, a jury found that Frances Hall committed the murder under “sudden passion.” Consequently, the mandatory sentence was lowered to two to 20 years in prison. The jury gave her the lowest possible sentence for murder of two years in prison. She was released in 2018. LL

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