Courtney Hall, right, addresses Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday before he sentenced her to three years in prison for trying to hide the gun, clothing and car of her boyfriend, John C. Bruner III, after he killed the Sierra Morris, the mother of his child, and her father Leroy Morris in Youngstown last February. At left is one of her attorneys, Colin Meeker. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — The woman who drove a shooter to the West Judson Avenue home where Sierra Morris, 25, and her father, Leroy Morris, 58, were shot to death last Feb. 29, was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison.

Courtney L. Hall, 29, also hid the clothes John C. Bruner III of Warren wore, the gun he used to kill the Morrises and Bruner’s car. Bruner asked Hall to hide the items during a jailhouse phone call following his arrest.

But Hall, Bruner’s girlfriend at the time, cooperated with law enforcement and agreed to testify against Bruner. Bruner, 31, pleaded guilty and agreed to a prison sentence of 41 years to life instead of letting the case go to trial.

Prosecutors said Bruner was upset with Sierra Morris because she was not letting him see their daughter, Jordyn, 6. Prosecutors said Bruner killed Sierra and Leroy Morris in front of the child.

Hall pleaded guilty in September to three counts of tampering with evidence related to the gun, clothes and car. She could have been sentenced to as many as nine years in prison. Prosecutors recommended six years.

On Tuesday, Hall and her attorney asked Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to give her probation instead of jail time, arguing that Hall did not know Bruner was going to kill anyone, and she only hid items for Bruner out of fear.

The judge gave her three years in prison with credit for about 10 months already spent in the Mahoning County jail.

“I was terrified, nervous, emotional and in shock,” Hall, of Akron, told the judge about why she hid evidence for Bruner after he told her to in a phone call from the Mahoning County jail.

“Being yelled at and told to do something under circumstances that were so foreign, I was scared. I didn’t have the chance to think about the actions I was making,” she said.

Hall also addressed an apology to Donna Morris, mother of Sierra Morris and wife of Leroy Morris: “Miss Donna, I am truly sorry about what has happened. I am sorry about everything you are going through right now.”

Hall then talked about Jordyn.

“I loved Jordyn so much, and so did my family,” Hall said. “I’ve been around Jordyn since she was 2 years old. I would never want Jordyn to grow up without her grandfather or her mother. I know what it feels like to lose a mother at that age,” Hall said.

The judge asked Jennifer McLaughlin, assistant county prosecutor, if any evidence showed Hall was aware that Bruner intended to kill the Morrises.

“I don’t know if that is a question we will ever be able to answer,” McLaughlin said. “As far as what the state could prove at trial, no. I do not have sufficient evidence to prove that she knew that she and John Bruner were coming down to commit two homicides.”

She said there were “circumstantial pieces of evidence that speak very negatively for her, the fact that she drops John Bruner off outside of the residence with his gun out, that she goes down and waits at the store, that he comes down, jumps in the car, she drives him away after the fact.”

During the shooting, the girl ran back to a bedroom to her grandmother. They hid in the bedroom and called 911.

But as to whether those facts would have convinced a jury that she was a complicitor to the murder, “I really don’t know,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said these tampering charges needed to be seen “in the context of two brutal, brutal homicides.” If police had not recovered the gun and car, it could have negatively affected Bruner’s prosecution, McLaughlin said. The clothes were not recovered.

Hall was initially charged with being an accomplice to the murder, but she was allowed to plead guilty to the three lesser charges.

Before announcing Hall’s sentence, Durkin said he found it concerning that Hall threw away clothes and concealed the murder weapon, “clearly knowing that something terrible had happened.”

erunyan@tribtoday.com