Victim's letter: 'I'm wanting a divorce'

By Jessica Stith
of The Daily Times Staff

Vickie Hill's mother, Donna Heaton, testified that she found something when she was cleaning out her daughter's house after her death.

It was a letter inside of an armoire located in a bathroom in the basement of the residence. Heaton said she discovered the letter tucked away in a stack of Stanley Blair Hill's T-shirts. She said she had been asked to pack up Stanley Hill's belongings, as well.

She said the letter was written to Stanley Hill from her daughter, Vickie Irene Correll Hill. Blount County Assistant District Attorney General Robert Headrick asked her to read the undated letter to the jury during 42-year-old Stanley Hill's first-degree murder trial on Wednesday.

Stanley Hill first told Blount County sheriff's deputies that his wife's death was a suicide and he found her hanging in the detached garage at their residence on Fairfield Drive.

After detectives told him the evidence didn't add up, Hill changed his story. He said he assisted his 32-year-old wife in suicide by preparing a contraption and helping her complete the act. Investigators said the story still didn't match evidence.

According to the letter, Vickie Hill says she doesn't want to argue and he (Stanley Hill) never talks to her. She said they both had changed, she wasn't in love with him anymore and that she had never felt so "unattached" to anyone in her life.

"I'm really wanting a divorce more than ever," Heaton read from the letter.

Vickie Hill wrote that she was no longer attracted to her husband and missed being kissed and hugged. She asked him not to be mad at her for telling him how she felt.

"I do want joint custody of my child," Vicki Hill wrote, referring to hers and Stanley Hill's 2-year-old child. "I would never try to take him away from you because you're a good father."

Heaton said her daughter also wrote that she was looking for a place to live.

More evidence

Another piece of evidence submitted was Vickie Hill's purse and its contents. Assistant District Attorney General Tammy Harrington asked Blount County Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Shannnon Carswell to list all of the items inside.

The purse contained several items including prescription medication, a small amount of cash and a receipt from Big Lots. Carswell said the date on the receipt was Dec. 26, 2003, which was just five days before Vickie Hill's death. She had put a sofa and love seat on layaway at the store.

Other items entered as evidence were the yellow rope Stanley Hill said his wife used to commit suicide and bedding from Stanley Hill's 10-year-old stepson's bedroom, where he said she ended her life while her son wasn't home.

Carswell also identified a capias warrant that was issued for Stanley Hill's arrest after he failed to appear for his trial originally scheduled in December 2005. She said Stanley Hill's parents had procured a surety bond on their house and property to bail their son out of jail and they filed a missing person report in Jefferson County on Nov. 29, 2005, when Stanley Hill disappeared.

Carswell said Hill was found by Los Angeles police officers on July 3. 2006, when he was pulled over for a registration violation. Inside his vehicle they found multiple fake identification cards and a book on how to change your identity and erase bad credit.

"There was an identification card from Los Angeles with Mr. Hill's picture on it," Carswell said. "The name on the card was Shawn Ashton Myers."

Also testifying for the state were Dr. David Vines and Dr. Kim Collins. Vines, a family practitioner, treated Vickie Hill for anxiety and depression. He testified that Vickie Hill never expressed suicidal thoughts to him, and he had asked her regularly since he began treating her in 1999.

History of depression

Defense attorney Jeff Daniel asked Vines to go through the medical history, which included prescriptions for several different depression medications over four years. Daniel also pointed out the many side effects she experienced from the medications and submitted Food and Drug Administration warnings on the medications as evidence.

Collins said Vickie Hill was her hairdresser, and that Vickie Hill also went to the gynecological group where Collins worked. She said Vicki Hill "never exhibited the signs" or expressed suicidal thoughts to her. She said she last saw Vickie Hill on Dec. 16, 2003.

"It was a typical interaction," Collins said. "It was getting close to Christmas and she was excited about Christmas."

The trial will continue today before Judge Mike Meares in Blount County Circuit Court.