Han Gil Defendant Who Sexually Assaulted, Allegedly Murdered Young Drug User Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison
The final defendant in the Han Gil drug trafficking case was sentenced today to 40 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.
In June 2021, after seven days of trial, a jury convicted Bryan Reshad Hill, 39, of conspiracy to distribute heroin and crack cocaine. He was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer.
According to evidence presented at trial, Mr. Hill, aka “Black,” dealt heroin and cocaine out of Han Gil Hotel Town, a drug infested establishment shut down by the feds in March 2019. He and other dealers paid an inflated daily rate, dubbed a “drug tax,” to induce the hotel’s proprietor to turn a blind eye to the trafficking occurring inside the building.
The Han Gil – which served as home base for numerous high-level traffickers – saw four confirmed deaths, two non-fatal shootings, and dozens of drug-related incidents in the months before its closure. Numerous drug users, who often injected themselves while still on the premises, were subjected to brutality (including beatings and burnings with a butane torch) and sexual abuse by the dealers headquartered there. The hotel, once located caddy-corner to a local elementary school, has since been demolished.
According to evidence presented at his sentencing hearing, Mr. Hill raped and presumably murdered a 19-year-old drug user inside one of the Han Gil trap rooms on Dec. 27, 2018.
A witness to the assault testified at Mr. Hill’s jury trial that she heard the defendant tell the victim, “stop fighting, you cannot win.” The witness later saw the girl’s lifeless body on the floor of restroom after Mr. Hill exited. Her corpse was dumped in a park in Oak Cliff and recovered a month later.
During the hearing, Judge Scholer stated on the record that based upon her review of surveillance footage taken from the hotel – which showed the defendant carry the near-unconscious victim into the bathroom, then exit the bathroom a short time later wearing gloves on both hands (download footage here) - she determined that because the girl was unable to consent to a sex act, Mr. Hill had perpetrated a sexual assault against a vulnerable victim.
Her death was just one of several stemming from drug incidents at Han Gil. Two former Coppell High School students, both age 22, died of overdoses during the summer of 2018, and the body of an unknown male was removed from the property that fall.
Twenty three additional defendants have already been sentenced in this case, including Han Gil owner Su Amos Mun, who pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug involved premises and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, and lead dealer Eric Dewayne Freeman, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a firearm by a felon and was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
“Behind the walls of the Han Gil, this defendant committed truly heinous acts,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “It has been four years since our office began its investigation of Han Gil Hotel Town, and today, we are proud to bring this sordid case to a close. We know, however, that our work is far from over. We will continue our crack down on violent drug traffickers and the establishments that allow them to operate.”
“To say the crimes that occurred at the Han Gil Hotel were horrendous would not be enough to describe the degree of violence, viciousness, and pain that occurred at the hands of Mr. Hill and others,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chávez. “During this time where we honor Victims’ Rights Week, DEA Dallas will continue to work tirelessly to keep these atrocities and other acts of drug-related violence from repeating themselves.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office, the Coppell Police Department, the Dallas Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Office, the U.S. Marshal’s Service, IRS - Criminal Investigations, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Grand Prairie, Arlington, Grapevine, Lancaster, Plano, Farmers Branch, Garland, Rowlett, Denton, Lewisville, and McKinney police departments.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rick Calvert and Phelesa Guy prosecuted the criminal case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Hogan, Lindsey Beran (fmr.), and Braden Civins handled the civil case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Beverly Chapman and Melissa Childs oversaw the forfeiture.
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