VALHERMOSO SPRINGS, Ala. — In a case that has haunted northern Alabama for years, John Michael Legg pleaded guilty Wednesday to his role in the chilling 2020 execution-style killings of seven people, known as the “Seven Deadly Sins” murders.
Legg, 23, entered the plea to three counts of capital murder in a Morgan County courtroom. His sentence: life in prison without the possibility of parole. The plea spares Legg from the death penalty but ensures he will never leave prison.
The grisly crime occurred on June 4, 2020, when authorities found seven bodies in a rural home in Valhermoso Springs, a quiet community about 30 miles south of Huntsville. The victims—men and women ranging in age from 17 to 45—were discovered shot multiple times in what investigators described as a methodical massacre.
The home itself was a scene of carnage. Bullet holes riddled the walls, and blood stained the floors, according to law enforcement reports.
Prosecutors alleged that Legg and his co-defendant, Frederick James Brown, targeted the victims over personal grievances and ties to a local motorcycle club. Motives ranged from jealousy to betrayal—emotions that investigators connected to the so-called “Seven Deadly Sins” of Christian theology.
Both men fled the state after the killings but were apprehended weeks later in Oregon, after a nationwide manhunt. Brown pleaded guilty to the murders earlier this year and was also sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The case drew its eerie nickname from rumors that the killers symbolically acted out the seven sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Though authorities have never officially confirmed this theory, it added an unsettling layer to an already shocking crime.
At Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutors recounted the brutality of the murders. Witnesses said the victims had no time to escape, ambushed as they gathered in the home. Several were shot at close range, execution-style.
“John Michael Legg acted with cold calculation,” Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said. “This plea ensures that justice is served without subjecting the victims’ families to the trauma of a trial.”
The judge asked Legg if he understood the gravity of his plea. He nodded, answering with a quiet “Yes, sir.”
In the courtroom, relatives of the victims sat in silence, some wiping tears as they listened to the grim details. They declined to speak to reporters after the hearing.
The quiet community of Valhermoso Springs remains scarred by the crime, with some residents saying the house where the murders occurred has become a local reminder of evil. “This kind of thing just doesn’t happen here,” one neighbor said in 2020. “It’s like we’re cursed now.”
While the case has come to a legal conclusion, its legacy lingers. For many in Morgan County, the murders were a shocking reminder of the darkness that can lie beneath seemingly ordinary lives.
The home where the killings occurred has remained vacant since the tragedy, a foreboding relic of one of Alabama’s most gruesome crimes.