Attorneys who represent Ronald Hale and Norma Hale, the parents of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, did not respond to The Tennessee Star when asked about the killer’s suicide note and a probate court filing, which both appear to suggest the killer left a last will and testament prior to her devastating attack on March 27, 2023.
Neither attorney David Raybin, who represented Ronald Hale and Norma Hale in matters related to the Covenant investigation, nor attorney Jeff Mobley, who represents the killer’s parents in the intestate probate case for Audrey Hale’s estate, replied to a press inquiry from The Star which sought to establish whether the killer left behind a document called a will.
Additionally, The Star asked Raybin (pictured above, left) and Mobley (pictured above, right) whether Audrey Hale left any document, which may not be considered a will, that offered instructions for after her death but did not receive a response before press time.
Should Audrey Hale have left a last will and testament, it could provide insight on how the killer wanted her writings treated after she was killed while orchestrating the Covenant School attack, where she was killed by police after claiming the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members.
While Audrey Hale wrote in her suicide note, “PLEASE READ MY WILL,” her parents claimed when purportedly transferring the intellectual copyright ownership of her writings to the Covenant Children’s Trust to block their release that Audrey Hale did not have a “valid testamentary instrument” at the time of her death.
The Star also did not receive a response from the Davidson County Probate Court Clerk after inquiring whether Judge Andra Hendrick, who is overseeing the ongoing Audrey Hale probate case, would reconsider her August 2023 decision that Clata Renee Brewer, who was one of the plaintiffs in the Tennessee lawsuit that sought to compel Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) release the killer’s writings, did not have standing when she sought to stay the probate proceedings.
In her motion, Brewer pointed to a document provided apparently by MNPD to Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles, who oversaw the case to release Audrey Hale’s writings.
Brewer stated the MNPD log of materials supplied to Myles “clearly and unequivocally identified one of the documents with a one word description which would be inconsistent with and would prohibit intestate administration of decedent’s estate without further judicial review and determination by this Court.”
Though Brewer did not name this document, sources familiar with the investigation, who are not attorneys, told The Star that the word “will” was included in the inventory of documents.
Prior to Hendrick’s decision, Mobley filed a response to Brewer’s motion on behalf of Ronald Hale and Norma Hale. He argued that Brewer did not having standing, but also that her involvement in the probate case would “prejudice the estate” and that Brewer “failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”
On July 4, Myles ruled in favor of the defendants and the Covenant Children’s Trust, a collection of parents of minor Covenant students who she first allowed to intervene in the lawsuit after they claimed to own the copyright to Audrey Hale’s writings and determined that not one page of the killer’s documents would be released due to the copyright claim.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy were plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Leahy immediately vowed he and SNDM would “absolutely appeal” the judge’s decision.
Leahy and SNDM remain plaintiffs in the ongoing federal lawsuit that seeks to compel the FBI to release Audrey Hale’s full writings, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
Last month, The Star published a May 2023 memo sent by the FBI to MNPD Chief John Drake, which “strongly” advised against releasing “legacy tokens” from killers like Audrey Hale. An FBI definition suggested both the writings left by Audrey Hale obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits are considered unfit for publication by the agency.
Though the FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, it confirmed it sends such “products” to local law enforcement.
Since it obtained approximately 80 pages of Audrey Hale’s writings and a portion of police documents, The Star has published more than 60 articles that include her own words or new details about the Covenant investigation, including the revelation the killer was a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jeff Mobley” by Nashville Law School. Photo “David Raybin” by Raybin and Weissman, PC.
Could it possibly be ‘the pills?’ Maybe we get them asking the wrong questions, so we don’t have to worry about the answers?
Dr Peter Breggin Discusses The Relationship Between Mass Shooters and Psychiatric Medication
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