Kansas police seek man in woman’s death; he has ties to KC and Wichita

A suspect in a February killing — where a mother of three children was “brutally murdered” — has ties to Kansas City and Wichita, Salina Police Chief Brad Nelson said during a news conference Thursday.

An arrest warrant for first-degree murder was issued for 36-year-old Nelson Gerrod Hull III a few days after the killing of 36-year-old Courtney Ann Hoffman. She was found shot inside of her car at her home in north Salina shortly before noon on Feb. 23.

Police believe the two were dating.

Thursday’s news conference, which included Hoffman’s mother, was to try to focus more attention on locating Hull.

“I guess this individual thought her life didn’t matter anymore, but it did matter,” Taphne Speilman, Hoffman’s mother, said. She said it mattered to her daughter’s children: a 4-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son who is now “battling traumatic disorders” and a 16-year-old daughter who Hoffman will never see “walking up the steps to graduate or walking down the aisle to get married.”

“It’s not that bringing him in will bring (her) back, because I know it won’t.,” Speilman said. “But if we can protect any other young woman, sister, daughter, mother from this same thing happening to them, I know justice will be served then. So, I am begging, I’m pleading, if you have any information at all, whether it’s big, whether it’s small, please come (forward). Help our family put a closure to this horrific deal.”

In March, police said they arrested 34-year-old Clarence Darryl Brown on suspicion of aiding and abetting first-degree murder, criminal solicitation and interference with law enforcement. Brown helped Hull flee after the killing, Sgt. David Villanueva said.

Hull, who has convictions in Sedgwick County on drug-related crimes, was named a suspect in the case days after the killing.

It’s rare, Nelson said, after a suspect’s photo has been widely distributed, for it to take months before he or she is captured. “That’s pretty surprising because usually we get them before that ... I feel comfortable we will, we just haven’t.”

Nelson said Hull has family and friends in Kansas City and Wichita. Nelson said police have been contacted in those cities as well as in Texas.

Hull is 6-foot-3, weighs 220 pounds and has “Mi Familia” tattooed on the right side of his neck.

“Hull should definitely be considered armed and dangerous,” Nelson said.

Anyone with information about Hull’s whereabouts can call 911 or CrimeStoppers at 785-825-TIPS. Tips can be anonymous and lead up to a $2,500 cash reward.

This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 3:28 PM.