New evidence found in Hill trial: Authorities find more rope at Hill home

By Jessica Stith
of The Daily Times Staff

It was impossible -- the rope was too short. But 4¬½ years later, Stanley Hill suddenly remembered there was more rope.

The rope that 42-year-old Stanley Blair Hill said his wife used to commit suicide on Dec. 31, 2003, was not long enough, according to testimony from University of Tennessee forensic pathologist Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan during Stanley Hill's first degree-murder trial on Thursday.

Hill originally told deputies that his wife, 32-year-old Vickie Irene Correll Hill, hung herself in the detached garage at their residence on Fairfield Drive. After the evidence didn't add up, Hill changed his story and told detectives that he had assisted his wife with her suicide.

He said that after months of his wife talking about it, he created a contraption with a rope. He said all she had to do was "roll off the bed" to complete the act. He was charged with first-degree murder of his wife on January 1, 2004, his 38th birthday.

A full-size bed was brought into the courtroom upon request of Blount County Assistant District Attorney General Robert Headrick. Mileusnic-Polchan set up the contraption as Stanley Hill said he did during a reenactment with authorities. After tying the rope to the back leg of the bed, the rope wasn't long enough to tie a noose and wrap it around her body as Stanley Hill said he did.

After a lunch break, Hill's defense attorneys said Hill had just told them that he cut off several feet of the rope after the incident.

"He had hid the section of rope he cut off and it is several feet," Attorney Rick Scroggins said.

Retrieving the rope

Blount County Circuit Court Judge Mike Meares allowed representatives of the defense and prosecution to go to the Hill's old house to see if the piece of rope was still there.

David and Suzi Capps, 3713 Fairfield Drive, Maryville, have lived in the house since August 2004. Suzi Capps said deputies knocked on her door on Thursday afternoon and "asked if they could look for more evidence."

She agreed and the deputies went down to her basement. She said they began looking under ceiling tiles.

"They pushed a tile up and found what they were looking for," she said. "They had something in the (evidence) bag when they left."

Scroggins told Meares that they would discuss the "new evidence" in the trial today.

Mileusnic-Polchan also said the autopsy showed strangulation as opposed to a hanging. She said Vickie Hill had internal hemorhaging, which wasn't consistent with a hanging. She pointed out that the ligature mark did not have a pattern in it as a rope does and the mark was not as wide as the rope Hill said she used.

Stanley Hill testifies

Stanley Hill took the stand and told the jury about his wife's depression and how she often spoke of ending her life. He said she took about 15 prescription pills on one occasion.

"At times, it was almost like it was for shock value," Hill said.

He said she asked him to assist her with the suicide, because she was afraid she would not complete the act.

"She made me promise that I would not allow her to be in a coma, to be a vegetable," Hill said.

So Stanley Hill "just kind of come up" with the rope contraption. He said he tied it to the bed in his 10-year-old stepson's bedroom. On Dec. 31, 2003, he said she woke him up and told him "it's time, come on." He said their 2-year-old son was in bed with him, and did not wake up.

"(She was) very matter of fact, very straight forward," Hill said. "There was no emotion."

Defense attorney Jeff Daniel asked Hill why he didn't leave instead of staying to help her kill herself.

"There's a million things that I could've, should've, wish I would have done," Hill testified.

Hill said she attempted to commit the act herself, but asked for his help with a pulley knot. He said, "She put her back to me and basically rolled off" the bed.

"When she rolled off, I went to my knees," Hill said. "I put my hands on her and I looked at her and then I turned away."

He said he moved her to the detached garage, because they agreed that he should not look like he was involved, so he could still take care of their 2-year-old child.

"What happened was wrong," Hill said. "It was a crime. Both Vickie and I knew that assisted suicide was a crime."

During cross examination, Blount County Assistant District Attorney General Tammy Harrington asked why he just now told his attorney after "4¬½ years" about the other piece of rope. She also asked why he didn't throw the entire rope up under a ceiling tile, and Hill didn't seem to have an answer.

She asked him why he didn't take steps to get his wife help, and he said the suicide threats weren't "constant." She also inquired as to why she "only confided in (him) of her wishes to die," since they had a bad marriage and often spoke of divorce.

Harrington asked Stanley Hill why Vickie Hill did not leave a suicide note or write a letter to her children if she didn't want authorities to link him to the suicide. He said "that wasn't thought of or mentioned."

"I didn't say she was rational, nor was I," Stanley Hill said.