News

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Monday, January 26, 2026

Perjury Results in 4 Year Prison Sentence

Ron “Hallboy” Hall, 55, of Zanesville appeared before Judge Kelly Cottrill earlier this month to receive his sentence for committing perjury involving a shooting in which he was the victim.

Judge Cottrill handed down a total sentence of four years in a circumstance which may seem unusual to normal people who are not involved in the narcotics trade.

Case Facts:

In early 2025, Hall was living on Wheeling Avenue in a house well known for narcotics activity. At the time, he was permitting Chaison “Yak” Suber, a Columbus drug dealer, to live in his house and sell drugs.

The two got in an argument over drugs, resulting in Suber producing a handgun and shooting Hall in the leg. Hall insisted to officers at the scene and to paramedics that he did not know who shot him. He remained uncooperative with the investigation into the drug-house shooting.

When individuals are uncooperative with a police investigation, one option available to law enforcement is to seek a Grand Jury subpoena. Through that process, witnesses are required to appear, and required to testify truthfully, whether or not they want to be involved.

Hall was subpoenaed before the Muskingum County Grand Jury and chose to continue to lie, stating he did not know who shot him. He was confronted with video of the shooting, including his own voice exclaiming, “Yak! You shot me, that’s really [expletive]!”

Hall continued to insist that he did not know who shot him or why.

Grand Jury Process:

After receiving a subpoena, appearance before a Grand Jury is a civic obligation, and telling the truth is required. It goes without saying that the amount of effort and expenditure required to arrange for Grand Jury testimony is far greater than what is necessary if a person cooperates with the police.

In conjunction with this amount of effort, the consequences of lying to the Grand Jury can also be more severe.

In Muskingum County, law enforcement, the prosecutor’s office, and Muskingum County Grand Jurors put forth the extra time and effort required to obtain all information necessary to hold criminals accountable, even in unusual situations where the victims would prefer to handle matters outside of court.

This process keeps Muskingum County residents safe, by removing dangerous people from the community, and by preventing dangerous people from being able to bribe, threaten, or use criminal peer pressure to escape responsibility.

In addition to being sentenced for his lies, Hall was sentenced for permitting drug abuse, resulting in the forfeiture of his Wheeling Ave drug house, and for a separate situation in which he was caught with drugs.

Hall is no stranger to the law, with a record of repeated felony convictions dating back to the late 1990’s.

“One of the most powerful tools used by criminal culture to thwart law enforcement is pressuring others not to cooperate with investigations,” according to Assistant Prosecutor John Litle who handled the case. “We eliminate that pressure by ensuring that cooperation in the investigation of serious crime is not a choice in the first place. If criminals want to find someone other than themselves to blame for getting caught, they can call the police department or the prosecutor’s office.”

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