Ag retail murder unsolved, another awaits trial

Seagraves, Texas, and Hartsville, S.C.-It has been over a year since an Agriliance LLC employee was beaten to death at a company warehouse in Seagraves, Texas. There has still been no arrest, however, and the matter remains under investigation, according to an Agriliance spokesperson last week. Robert Bryant, 54, was a long-time employee. Speculation was that he was the first to work and surprised a burglar (GM April 7, 2008, p. 11). The Gaines County Sheriff’s department later offered a $5,000 award for information leading to an arrest (GM April 28, 2008, p. 12). In the meantime, in another ag-retail related murder in Hartsville, S.C., the alleged murderer was caught but still awaits trial. Eddie Anthony Huggins, 39, was arrested in Pennsylvania Oct. 2 for the brutal murder and robbery of prominent fertilizer business owner and manager Keith Hoyle Hancock, 57, at Gardner’s Fertilizer & Farm Supplies. Even if Huggins were to go free, he’s facing up to 44 years on parole violations in Virginia, Chief of Police Tim Kemp told Green Markets. “He’s essentially facing life in prison or the death penalty here depending on what the prosecutor and family decide,” Kemp reported. “I know they want to get some closure for the family, but I assure them he isn’t going anywhere.” It was a brutal incident and the only homicide in Hartsville in 2008, in which Hancock was beaten with an axe handle. He died at the scene approximately an hour after Hartsville police received the call. Hancock’s father-in-law, Harrell Gardner of Hartsville, was his business partner.