A new trial date has been set for the man accused of gunning down Bibb County Sheriff's Deputy Brad Johnson during a 2022 pursuit involving a stolen vehicle that ended in a shootout and a daylong manhunt. Austin Patrick Hall is now scheduled to stand trial on February 22, 2027, according to court records, nearly four years and eight months after Johnson's death.
Johnson was fatally shot in June 2022 while on duty in Bibb County, Alabama, during a pursuit involving a stolen vehicle, as reported by WBMA. The shooting also injured a second deputy. The initial pursuit and gunfire unfolded along Highway 25 in the Brierfield area of Bibb County, touching off a 16-hour, multi-agency manhunt that ended when U.S. Marshals found Hall hiding in a tent, according to Officer Magazine, which noted Hall claimed at the time that he was unarmed when tactical teams closed in.
Hall faces three counts of capital murder, one count of attempted murder tied to the shooting of Deputy Chris Poole, and one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, per the Alabama Attorney General's Office, which formally indicted him on the five counts in June 2023. He has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed awaiting trial. The Alabama Attorney General's Office is prosecuting the case, and Hall could face the death penalty if convicted.
What Hall Is Facing If Convicted
If convicted of capital murder, Hall faces either execution or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The attempted murder charge carries a sentence of 10 to 99 years or life, while the charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle carries 2 to 20 years, according to the Alabama Attorney General's Office.
The case was originally set for trial on September 28, 2026, but the court's docket shifted after Hall's defense attorneys, Juston Forrester and Rachel Cohen Blume, filed a continuance motion on July 22. The motion cited scheduling conflicts involving both attorneys and the unavailability of their trial mitigation expert, a detail reported by the Tuscaloosa Thread. The Alabama Attorney General's Office did not oppose the request, and the presiding judge granted the continuance, with court records indicating the case would be rescheduled once the court's 2027 trial calendar became available.
Fight Over Where the Trial Will Be Held
Hall's attorneys have also pushed to move the trial out of Bibb County entirely, arguing that intense media coverage and strong community opinion could make it difficult to seat an impartial jury. In April, the defense asked to relocate proceedings to one of five rural counties within Alabama's 4th Judicial Circuit — Bibb, Dallas, Hale, Perry, or Wilcox — according to the same Tuscaloosa Thread report. Prosecutors opposed the move, arguing a fair and impartial jury could still be selected within Bibb County.
Circuit Judge Marvin W. Wiggins denied the request on May 1, ruling it was too early to determine whether Hall could receive a fair trial locally. The court may revisit that question as jury selection approaches. A virtual hearing is scheduled for October 26, with a pretrial hearing set for January 14, 2027, ahead of the February trial date.
A Release That Triggered Statewide Reform
Hall was free at the time of the shooting despite a lengthy criminal record, a fact that set off a reckoning inside Alabama's prison system. He had escaped from the Camden Work Release Center in Wilcox County in October 2019 while serving a nine-year-and-nine-month sentence for theft, but corrections officials failed to timely forfeit his accrued good time or process his escape warrant, which allowed his release in April 2022, according to the Alabama Political Reporter. State officials later acknowledged that the failure to process his escape warrant directly contributed to his release.
Before the shooting, Hall had faced at least 46 criminal charges, per Police1. He had made bond on 22 new charges in Calhoun and Chilton counties just weeks before Johnson was killed.
The administrative breakdown prompted Governor Kay Ivey to sign Senate Bill 1 in April 2023, known as the Deputy Brad Johnson Act, which overhauled the state's good-time rules to block violent felons and escapees from securing early release, according to the Office of the Governor of Alabama. That same July, the state agreed to pay a $1 million settlement — the statutory maximum allowed under state law — to Johnson's estate and his daughters, acknowledging flaws in state correctional oversight that preceded the shooting, as reported by AL.com.
A Community Still Marking the Loss
Bibb County has permanently commemorated Johnson's death. In June 2023, state and local leaders dedicated the Highway 25 interchange overpass at U.S. Highway 82 in Centreville as the Deputy Brad Johnson Memorial Bridge, with the dedication held on the one-year anniversary of his death, according to Bhamwiki. That lasting tribute underscores why Hall's attorneys have pointed to deep community sentiment in arguing for a change of venue, a question the court has left open for now as the case heads toward its February 2027 trial date.
