Nedrow man admits fatal stabbing and crowbar beating in 2024 homicide

Edward Hall admitted in Onondaga County court that he killed Kevin A. Mills, ending the fight over guilt in a Nedrow homicide that began with a sheriff’s investigation on West Conklin Avenue more than two years ago. Hall, now 19, said he stabbed Mills in the back and then beat him over the head with a crowbar.

The plea establishes Hall’s responsibility for the killing and moves the case out of the uncertainty of investigation and toward sentencing. It also leaves the court to decide the punishment in a case that has carried particular weight in Nedrow, a hamlet in the town of Onondaga with a 2020 Census population of 2,095. In a community that small, a violent death can ripple well beyond the address where it happened.

Deputies first investigated the death on March 12, 2024, after a suspicious death was reported at a home on West Conklin Avenue. Mills, who was 60, was later identified and his death was ruled a homicide. Hall was 17 at the time of the attack, which means the case crossed from a juvenile age at the time of the crime into adult court by the time of the plea, a factor that can complicate how violent cases move through the justice system.

For Mills’ family, the admission marks a major step toward final accountability, though it does not erase the loss. For neighbors in Nedrow and the broader South Side of the town of Onondaga, the plea closes one of the county’s more serious recent violent cases and shifts the focus from whether Hall caused Mills’ death to when the court will impose sentence. The Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, led by William J. Fitzpatrick, is responsible for prosecuting criminal offenses in the county and will carry the case through its final court stage.

The timeline tells the story of how long a homicide can remain open in a local justice system: a March 2024 death investigation, a homicide ruling, and now a guilty plea on July 3, 2026. In Onondaga County, the case now stands as a resolved killing, with sentencing the final step still ahead.