‘Sons Of Guns’ Star Will Hayden Sentenced To Life In Prison For Rapes Of Two Young Girls

Will Hayden, the former star of Discovery Channel’s hit reality TV show Sons of Guns, learned his fate this week. Back on April 7, Hayden was found guilty of the heinous crimes of raping two separate young girls; both victims were between the ages of 11 and 13 at the time they were sexually assaulted by Hayden. Today, the Sons of Guns star’s victims are 15 and 37 years old, and both broke down in emotional tears when their rapist was convicted just over a month ago of two counts of aggravated rape and one count of forcible rape.

Upon conviction, Will Hayden’s future was already looking fairly bleak. The forcible rape conviction alone carried a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison.

At his sentencing hearing, 51-year-old Will Hayden learned that he will die behind bars. As AOL News reports, the Sons of Guns star was sentenced to two life sentences plus four decades in prison for his disturbing crimes, without the possibility of parole.

Over the course of his trial and sentencing, the crimes committed by Will Hayden were hashed out in horrific detail. They revealed that Hayden had raped his younger victim repeatedly between the ages of 11 and 12 years old. According to his now-37-year-old victim, the Sons of Guns star raped her when she was between the ages of 12 and 13 years old. Hayden reportedly did so repeatedly, and the crimes took place back in the early 1990s.

During the trial, Will Hayden’s 15-year-old victim testified that the Sons of Guns star had sexually abused her for an extended period of time, even taking her virginity on her 11th birthday, reports The Advocate. According to the victim, Hayden threatened to hurt her if she told about the abuse, which continued until his personal assistant, Rebecca Ramsey, walked in on him forcing her to perform oral sex in his Louisiana home in August of 2014.

Will Hayden, ex-"Sons of Guns" star, sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years on East Baton Rouge rape convictions https://t.co/JamCYqPiZu

— The Advocate (@theadvocatebr) May 11, 2017

Ramsey would go on to report the sexual abuse she’d witnessed the next day to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. However, she admitted that she later defended Will Hayden against the allegations “out of fear.”

“I was thinking to myself this could be the time I could say something, but I was fearful, so I didn’t. I told them a bunch of lies … because that man threatened to take my life if I said anything.”

Will Hayden gets life in prison for rape. Child rape. What a despicable human being. I feel dirty for even watching Sons of Guns.

— Dan Buffa (@buffa82) May 12, 2017

Good riddance

— Frac Dog (@frac_dog) May 12, 2017

Will Hayden isn’t the only member of the Sons of Guns family to have faced serious legal problems in the last several years. Hayden’s adult daughter 29-year-old Stephanie Hayden Ford was also arrested in November of 2014, along with her husband 31-year-old Kris Ford. The Fords had both appeared regularly on Sons of Guns, and were arrested in connection with the alleged abuse of Stephanie’s young son. As The Advocate reports, Will Hayden’s daughter was accused of allowing her son to be physically abused. Her husband was accused of carrying out that physical abuse.

The pair were charged with felony counts of cruelty to juveniles and being a principal to cruelty to juveniles in connection with an alleged belt beating suffered by Stephanie’s 9-year-old son. The beating was so severe that it allegedly left the boy bruised, and the allegations were levied by the boy’s biological father, William Scott.

After her father was arrested in August of 2014, Stephanie Hayden Ford appeared on The Dr. Phil Show, where she gave a scathing account of her childhood and her father’s history of committing sexual assault against young girls. According to Stephanie, her father “preyed on her” as a child, even groping her when she was just 12 years old. She claimed that her father’s inappropriate sexual behavior led her to begin harming herself with knives.

“I’m very afraid of him.”

She also claimed that Will Hayden had raped one of his sexual assault victims “almost daily” for a year.

Suns of Guns, a reality show featuring the custom Baton Rouge gun store Red Jacket Firearms and the exploits of the Hayden family, began to air on the Discovery Channel in 2011. The series remained on the air until 2014, when it was cancelled due to the child rape accusations levied against Will Hayden.

[Featured Image by East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office]