First-degree murder trial in Hill case commences

By Jessica Stith
of The Daily Times Staff

Stanley Blair Hill's attorney, Jeff Daniel, said his client is "guilty -- guilty of assisted suicide -- not of first-degree murder."

Hill, 42, first told deputies that his wife, Vicki Correll Hill, committed suicide on Dec. 31, 2003, Blount County Assistant District Attorney General Tammy Harrington said.

"Things just didn't add up right away," Harrington said, and Hill changed his story and said he helped his wife with the suicide because she wanted to die. Harrington said the evidence and facts still didn't add up in Hill's second story.

"The second story is just as implausible as the first," Harrington said during opening statements in Hill's first-degree murder trial on Monday.

Harrington pointed out to a jury -- composed of nine women, three men and three female alternates -- that Hill showed even more guilt when he did not appear at his first trial, which was originally set for December 2005. She said he was found by authorities in Los Angeles, Calif., in possession of false identification.

Daniel said he did not refute that on the morning of the incident, Stanley Hill "was not honest about what happened to his wife." He told jurors that Stanley Hill will later explain to them why "he made poor decisions."

Daniel pointed out that there was no insurance policy on 32-year-old Vicki Hill's life and they were both faithful in their marriage. He said it "wasn't their first rodeo," as it was her fourth marriage and his third.

Defense: victim suicidal

The defense attorney said Vicki Hill was diagnosed with clinical depression, which was coupled with other personality traits that "sometimes made her difficult to deal with." He said she made a "half-hearted" suicide attempt a year prior to her death by taking several pills.

Daniel said Vicki Hill told her husband for months that she wanted to end her life, but didn't want to do it by herself and needed his help to complete the suicide.

"Finally he reached a point to where he agreed to assist her," Daniel said.

He said they devised a plan, which included a make-shift rope to tie around her neck and body. He said they planned it to where all she had to do was "roll off a bed."

When Stanley Hill told detectives this second story, they asked him to show them how he did it. Daniel said "he did just that" and went back to their residence at 3713 Fairfield Drive, off Coulter Road, behind Heritage High School.

Why did Stanley Hill take Vicki Hill's body to a detached garage behind their house and tell deputies he found her hanging there? Daniel said the couple was worried about their 2-year-old son, and "she wanted Stan to take care of this child."

"That's why he misled them, not to cover up murder," Daniel told the jury.

9-1-1 tape played

The first witness called to testify by the prosecution was Jeff Caylor, director of the Blount County Communications Center. They played the 9-1-1 tape from 6:57 a.m., Dec. 31, 2003. In the tape, Stanley Hill told dispatchers that his wife hung herself in the garage.

Deputy Neal Porter, the first to arrive on scene that morning, testified that when he encountered Stanley Hill, he "noticed (Stanley Hill's) hair was real wet," and Hill told him he took a shower between the time he found his wife and the deputy arrived.

"He had explained to me that his wife had hung herself," Porter testified. "He was a little nervous. I just noticed that he would try to get emotional and he wasn't able to shed any tears."

The state then showed video testimony of Dr. David Gilliam, the Blount County medical examiner. Gilliam gave his testimony last Thursday on video because he was unable to attend the trial this week.

Upon Gilliam's arrival on the morning of the incident, deputies told him the original story given by Hill -- that he found his wife hanging in the garage, he cut her down and left her lying on her back.

Gilliam said there was sawdust on the front of Vicki Hill's pants, but there was no sawdust in the garage. He said there was sawdust in a mudroom of the residence, and there appeared to be drag marks in that sawdust.

He also talked about two "ligature marks," which are marks on the skin that could be caused by a rope. He said the deeper ligature mark went "straight back" instead of "up." He said that the marks normally go up in a hanging situation.

"The ligature mark that went straight back appears inconsistent with the story of a body hanging from a rope," Gilliam said.

Gilliam said she also had rectangular impressions on her stomach, which matched a pattern of building material lying on the garage floor. This did not match the story that Stanley Hill cut her down from the rope and left her on her back. Gilliam said she must have spent a considerable amount of time on her stomach postmortem.

Because of the ligature marks, pattern on her stomach, sawdust on her pants, dirt found on the tops of her feet and abrasions found on her body, Gilliam said it made him "very suspicious that this was possibly a staged suicide."

The trial will continue today in Blount County Circuit Court before Judge Mike Meares. The first witness scheduled to testify is Blount County Sheriff's Office Lt. Danny Wilburn.