Cup thrower back in hot water

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BY KEITH EPPS

A woman who got national attention after she was arrested in Stafford for throwing a McDonald’s cup into another motorist’s vehicle is back in the local jail.

This video was taken when Jessica Hall was first released from jail in 2007.

Jessica Julia Hall, 30, was convicted of the felony charge of throwing a missile at an occupied vehicle as the result of a July 2, 2006, road-rage incident on Interstate 95 in Stafford.

The case was dubbed the “McMissile” case and got widespread attention, especially after a jury recommended that she serve two years in prison.

A judge later reduced the active sentence to the six weeks Hall had already served and set her free.

Stafford authorities recently extradited Hall from North Carolina, claiming she has violated her probation by failing to keep in touch with probation officials.

According to prosecutor George Elsasser, Hall has had no contact with probation officers since 2009, though she was never released from supervised probation.

Hall was in Stafford Circuit Court Monday seeking to be released on bond. Judge Sarah Deneke denied the request, but did move Hall’s trial on a probation violation charge from Sept. 21 to Aug. 17.

Hall was passing through  Stafford in 2006 with her pregnant sister and three children when she and another motorist got into some sort of altercation in the stop-and-go traffic in the northbound lanes.

An angry Hall launched a bag containing a cup full of ice and soda into the other vehicle. No one was injured, but Hall was arrested by a state trooper.

She was convicted of the felony and related charges in a Jan. 4, 2007, jury trial. The two years the jury recommended was the minimum amount available.

Hall was released the next month on conditions that included good behavior for five years, payment of court costs and supervised probation.

According to court records, Hall has since transferred her probation several times as she moved between North Carolina and Oklahoma and ended two marriages.

She was supposed to report to probation in Oklahoma in 2009, but authorities there notified their Virginia counterparts last year that they hadn’t heard from Hall since February 2009.

Court records show that other than the probation violation, Hall has not picked up any new charges since her Stafford convictions, though she hasn’t paid any court costs and now owes more than $9,000.

If Hall is convicted of the probation violation, she could be ordered to serve some or all of the nearly two years that were suspended.

Attorney Elizabeth Hutson is representing Hall.

Keith Epps: 540/374-5404

kepps@freelancestar.com

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