According to the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Ashe County Superior Court, Blevins’ estate is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $10,000 each.
Blevins’ attorney said the purpose of the lawsuit is to prevent Hammer from profiting from his crime as outlined under the state’s ‘slayer statute.’
Under the first claim for relief section of the suit, the Blevins claim states that Hammer shot Blevins in the back of the head at point blank range, execution style. The suit also states that Hammer murdered Blevins in cold blood and that it “constitutes the epitome of harmful and offensive contact.”
In the compensatory damages claim, it states: “The Blevins family and society as a whole has been forever deprived of their relationship with a wonderful son and brother” and that “the Blevins family shared bonds of genuine love and affection” with Jimmy.
It also explains that Jimmy Blevins endured severe mental, physical, and emotional pain and suffering prior to and during his execution.
Allegations within punitive damages states that Hammer “showed reckless, intentional and callous indifference and cavalier disdain for the rights of others, including Jimmy Blevins.”
Blevins, 41 at the time of his death, had been working for Hammer’s firewood business. Their relationship began to deteriorate when Blevins began pressuring Hammer over $1,605 that he owed him for work he had completed. Hammer later told authorities that he “snapped” when Blevins began pressuring him over the money. Sources close to Jimmy said that he began to contemplate the possibility of taking Hammer to court over the back owed wages. Hammer felt betrayed by Blevins and stated that he had “treated Blevins like a son” and “bought him things whenever he needed them.”
On the night of Feb. 24, 2007, Hammer is alleged to have disposed of Blevins’ body in a ditch near a Clifton farm. He repeatedly denied his involvement with Blevins disappearance and told a Virginia court room in May that he had ‘nothing to do with that’ during his sentencing hearing when he pled guilty to murdering three local men on a Grassy Creek tree farm in January 2008.
In late July, Hammer confessed to murdering Blevins and told authorities where he had hidden the body in the Clifton community. Hammer disclosed Blevins’ whereabouts under a deal he hatched out with local authorities that removed the possibility of Hammer receiving the death penalty and allowed him to relocate to a prison “closer to home.”
Hammer had also requested that the reward money offered for Blevins’ whereabouts be placed in a trust fund for his step-granddaughter.
Attorney David Jolly, who is a neighbor and close friend of the Blevins family, said that he and a law firm from Winston-Salem, Comerford & Britt, L.L.P., are taking the Blevins case pro bono. He explained that the purpose of the lawsuit is to prevent Hammer from profiting from the murder and collecting the reward money offered by the family.
“It is something that had to be done,” Jolly said. “Freddie P basically extorted $15,000 out of that family to give up the location of their son’s grave.
“They had to make a deal with the devil and we have to undo that.”
Jolly is not the only party opposed to the ‘despicable’ request. Hammer’s wife, Brenda, has been vehement in voicing her disapproval of this request.
“Brenda actually went to the prison on Tuesday to talk him out of it but she couldn’t talk any sense into him,” Jolly said. “She said to Freddie, ‘Look that money is something we don’t want anything to do with.’”
Jolly said that he has known the family since 1990 and felt that Hammer’s request was “despicable” and that the family had been planning to file the suit “for some time.”
“We wanted to do this (file a lawsuit) when the time was right and we will do whatever is necessary to get that money back,” Jolly said.
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