As more reality TV shows have sprouted up over the years, there has been a similar increase in the number of disturbing news stories involving some shows' "stars." And it doesn't get much more disturbing than the crimes of Will Hayden, a former lead on Discovery's Sons of Guns, who was sentenced today for multiple counts of rape involving two preteen females. It was a justifiably rough one, too, as he got life in prison, with an additional 40 years on top of that.
Will Hayden, now 51 years old, reportedly experienced a quick sentencing from District Judge Mike Erwin, during which the former Sons of Guns familiar said nothing, according to The Advocate in Baton Rouge. It was just over a month ago, on April 7, that Hayden was found guilty in an East Baton Rouge courtroom of two counts of aggravated rape and one count of forcible rape. Even a single count of aggravated rape is tacked with a mandatory life sentence, so this particular criminal's future has basically been set in stone for weeks now.
The older of Will Hayden's two victims (in this case) is now 37 years old, and she attended the sentencing in person, decades after she was abused and raped by Hayden on two occasions in the early 1990s, when she was just 12 and 13 years old. She did not stay fully quiet as Hayden did, though, letting out a big "Thank God!" and smiling as she exited the courtroom. The younger of the victims, who was 11 and 12 when Hayden raped her in 2013 and 2014, did not attend.
Will Hayden's criminal activity obviously started long before he ever bolstered weapons on TV for Sons of Guns, which premiered in 2011. Focusing on the legally troubled company Red Jacket Firearms, the series lasted for five seasons and came to an abrupt end in 2014 when multiple charges were brought against Hayden for child endangerment, child rape and other heinous crimes. Soon after the cancellation, daughter and co-star Stephanie Hayden-Ford went from defending her father against the rape charges to claiming that she was also victimized as a child. Other star Kris Ford was later arrested for child abuse and assault of a minor, and Hayden-Ford was then arrested for assault, since it was her child involved.
Though Hayden will spend the rest of his life behind bars for raping those two females, there are still multiple charges and allegations from other women that haven't been addressed in a legal sense in Livingston Parish. But District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said that motions were in place to get those other charges dismissed without prejudice; because Hayden already received the maximum penalty, more trials aren't the most feasible, but the dismissal allows for the cases to be reopened should some unforeseen incident make him a free man in Baton Rouge.
