BRYAN, Texas — William Hudson has been sentenced to die for the slayings of six people — including two from Farmington and a 6-year-old boy — at a remote Texas campsite in 2015.
According to multiple news sources, jurors deliberated less than an hour before delivering their verdict on the two-year anniversary of Hudson’s arrest.
Hudson was sentenced to die by lethal injection, although it was not clear Thursday whether an execution date had been set.
Last week, a Brazos County jury found Hudson, 35, guilty of three counts of capital murder for his role in killing former 77-year-old University of Maine at Farmington employee Carl Johnson, his daughter, 40-year-old Hannah Johnson, a Mt. Blue High School and UMaine graduate, and four members of their extended family.
In addition to Carl Johnson and his daughter, Hannah Johnson’s 6-year-old son, Kade Johnson, Hannah’s boyfriend, Thomas Kamp, and Kamp’s two adult sons, Austin and Nathan Kamp, were killed.
Both Carl, who was found shot and then bludgeoned to death and his daughter, Hannah, who was bludgeoned to death, were found in a camper trailer on property Thomas and Hannah bought from Hudson’s father. The bodies of the other four were found in a pond on Hudson’s property, investigators said.
Carl Johnson’s wife, Cynthia, also a retired UMF employee, was able to escape and hide in the woods until she could call 911 to report the shootings, investigators said in the days after the slayings.
Prosecutors said Hudson resented the sale of the property and that he killed the six after plying the adults with alcohol.
Hudson’s attorney didn’t call witnesses at the trial.
According to a police affidavit, Cynthia Johnson told investigators that on the day of the killing, a man riding an orange tractor approached the family and later helped them pull a vehicle from the mud. He identified himself as “William.”
He returned later to socialize and had drinks with the family.
“He later accompanied several family members into the surrounding woods,” the affidavit states.
Hudson returned to the campsite alone, and chased Carl and Hannah Johnson into a camper trailer. Cynthia Johnson told police she heard gunshots, according to the court document.
She saw her husband, Carl, collapse on the camper steps after having been shot by the man later identified as Hudson.
Cynthia Johnson continued to hide and remained in hiding until she felt it was safe to move, the affidavit states.
Once she was able to alert police, a search for Hudson began. Police said when they found Hudson in nearby Tennessee Colony, they also found his blood-stained tractor. Blood stains were also found on Hudson.
In the days after the killings, the Farmington community expressed shock over the loss of the Johnson family.
At Hudson’s trial, Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell said the case was unusual because it had a survivor and security footage.
The footage is from cameras outside Hudson’s mother’s home. While the footage doesn’t show the slayings, Mitchell said it corroborates Cynthia Johnson’s account of the events and provides enough proof of Hudson’s guilt.
William Hudson walks into the 361st District Courtroom at the Brazos County Courthouse on the first day of his trial in Bryan, Texas, on Nov. 1. A jury took only 20 minutes Tuesday, Nov. 7, to find Hudson guilty of capital murder in the 2015 deaths of six people. Authorities say William Hudson had become angry after learning two families had cut a lock to a gate to gain access to land they owned for a weekend of camping. (Dave McDermand/College Station Eagle via AP)
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