On Thursday, February 19, 2015, DUSTY RAY HICKS, d/o/b 5-27-1987, was sentenced to two (2) concurrent life sentences for his role in the 2011 kidnapping and murder of Russell and Rebecca Porter, of Willard, Missouri. Judge Calvin Holden, of Greene County, handed-down Hicks’ sentences while acting as the judge assigned to the Taney County Circuit Court case against Dusty Hicks.

The guilty plea was entered by Hicks on December 18, 2014, to two (2) counts of murder in the second degree, two (2) counts of armed criminal action, and two (2) counts of felonious restraint. After hearing victim impact statements from some of the family members of Russell and Rebecca Porter, statements from family and friends of Dusty Hicks, as well as arguments from Taney County Prosecutor Jeff Merrell and defense attorney Jon Van Arkel, Holden sentenced Hicks to life in prison on each murder count, twenty-five (25) years on each armed criminal action count, and seven (7) years on each felonious restraint count. Pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, those sentences are to run concurrently with one another.