Lawrence Co. murderer dies behind bars

A murderer convicted in a Lawrence County Court has died in prison. Brandon Hutchison, 44, who was convicted of the shooting murders of Aurora brothers Ronald and Brian Yates in 1996, died of natural causes while serving a life sentence at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking.
In a Nov. 13, 1996 Lawrence County Record article covering the trial, according to testimony, the Yates brothers were both shot at a New Year’s Eve party in a garage in Verona. They were then stuffed into the trunk of a car—while still alive—and dumped off along a country road near Freistatt, where they were shot again.
On New Year’s Day 1996, authorities found the bodies of the brothers, both dead of gun shot wounds to the head.
Lawrence County Prosecutor Robert George argued for Hutchison’s death penalty during the trial.
“The only justice would be two sentences of death,” George told the court. George called the subsequent death sentence “reasonable and just.”
While Hutchison was originally sentenced to the death penalty, the sentencing was overturned in 2011 by the Missouri Supreme Court.