The case against Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, implicated in a chilling Monroe County murder and a subsequent nationwide manhunt, has progressed to a grand jury following a court hearing this week. Hamlett stands accused of the murder of 34-year-old Steven Douglas Lloyd, whose identity was initially mistaken due to a deceitfully planted ID at the crime scene.
According to WVLT, the body was discovered near the Charles Hall Bridge on the Cherohala Skyway, after Hamlett allegedly made a false 911 call claiming to be an injured hiker named Brandon Kristopher Andrade. After a month-long flight from justice, which leapt from state to state, Hamlett was apprehended in Columbia, South Carolina, on November 10.
During yesterday's preliminary hearing, details emerged that Hamlett had cunningly staged the scene to throw authorities off his trail. It was revealed that he had placed a distress call on October 18, stating he was Andrade in desperate need after an encounter with a bear, leading to a fall. This account was quickly unraveled as the true identity of the victim was uncovered, and inconsistencies in the cause of death were apparent. "The caller claimed to be Brandon Kristopher Andrade and said he had fallen from a cliff after fleeing from a bear," as detailed in the case's affidavit of complaint, obtained by WATE.
The grand jury will now hear the case against Hamlett, currently held without bond, with his arraignment in criminal court scheduled tentatively for September 15, per the court clerk. In the complications of a case muddied by identity theft, it was revealed by Monroe County District Attorney Stephen Hatchett that false identification was at play, magnifying the depth of Hamlett's alleged attempts to evade the grasp of the law. Hamlet, after a multistate manhunt, was captured while in a hospital on November 10, as reported by 99.1 The Sports Animal.
