Hill found guilty of wife's murder

By Jessica Stith
of The Daily Times Staff

After several days of testimony and a bizarre chain of events, a jury found 42-year-old Stanley Blair Hill guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Vickie Irene Correll Hill.

The jury of nine women and three men returned the guilty verdict in less than two hours of deliberation. The conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Hill will be eligible for parole after 51 years in prison, when he is 93 years old.

The jury found that Stanley Hill did unlawfully and intentionally kill his 32-year-old wife on Dec. 31, 2003, with premeditation.

"He's got an absolute right to an appeal," Defense attorney Jeff Daniel said.

Daniel and defense attorney Rick Scroggins said they plan on discussing an appeal with Stanley Hill's family, and have 30 days to make that decision. Circuit Judge Mike Meares agreed to release the deed of trust on Hill's parents' farm, which was procured after he fled before his originally scheduled trial in December 2005.

Daniel pointed out that the defense didn't get to submit a late piece of evidence that a juror later asked a question about.

"It was obviously on the mind of one of the jurors," Daniel said.

Extra rope found

Daniel was speaking of a piece of rope that was found in the former house of Stanley and Vickie Hill on Thursday afternoon. Deputies and attorneys went to the home on Fairfield Drive, now owned by David and Suzie Capps, and found the piece of rope after an unusual turn of events in the trial.

Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan demonstrated to the jurors Thursday that a piece of rope Stanley Hill claimed his wife used to commit suicide was not long enough. Blount County Assistant District Attorneys General Tammy Harrington and Robert Headrick had a full-size bed brought into the courtroom for the demonstration.

After Stanley Hill's original story -- that his wife hung herself in their detached garage -- didn't fly with investigators, Hill said he built the rope contraption for his wife and assisted her in suicide. He said she "rolled off the bed" in her 10-year-old son's bedroom, hanging herself in the rope contraption, while their 2-year-old child was in another room.

After Mileusnic-Polchan's demonstration, Stanley Hill told his attorneys -- 4¬½ years after his wife's death -- that he had cut a piece of the rope off and tossed it above a ceiling tile in the basement. On Friday morning, Meares said the court was "going to exclude" the evidence and not mention it to the jury, questioning the timing and relevance of the rope at that point of the trial.

Headrick, Harrington and Daniel rehashed the evidence during their closing arguments on Friday morning.

"The evidence is quite simple," Headrick said. "On Dec. 31, 2003, the defendant Stanley Hill strangled his wife Vickie Hill to death."

Headrick asked the jury to recall four witnesses. He asked them to remember Vickie Hill's mother, Donna Heaton, who said her daughter wouldn't commit suicide due to her children and religious convictions. He asked the jury to also remember Mileusnic-Polchan who told them "the fatal ligature mark was not caused by this rope" and that there was a "cross over" on the back of Vickie Hill's neck, indicating strangulation -- not hanging.

'From the grave'

Headrick asked the jury to remember Stanley Hill's testimony and how he was "cold, calculated, emotionless and evasive." Finally, he said to remember Vickie Hill who "has spoken to us from the grave" in a letter to her husband submitted as evidence.

"She told you in this letter she had a plan, and that plan did not involve him," Headrick said. "Ladies and gentlemen, Vickie Hill told you that she did not want to die."

Daniel told the jury that even though his client's story was bizarre, "fact is sometimes stranger than fiction." He reminded the jurors that Stanley Hill told them himself what happened that day, and told them why he moved her body to the garage after her death.

"He took her out there, not to cover up a murder, to cover up his involvement in her suicide," Daniel said.

He reminded the jury of Vickie Hill's depression and the many anti-depressants she took. Daniel told the jury that Hill was "guilty of assisted suicide," and said, "in this country, we don't guess people into prison."

"The defense is asking you to make a leap," Harrington said. "I would consider it a large leap. They're asking you to think that just because Mrs. Hill is depressed, she's suicidal."

She pointed out several inconsistencies in Hill's testimony and said, "He's lying and he continued to do it throughout" the trial. Harrington talked about Vickie Hill's strangulation marks and said "we know that she was strangled with a ligature and it was not the yellow rope" that Hill said was used.

Harrington pointed out that Daniel called the details of the case "bizarre," and said she thought it was beyond bizarre.

"After all the testimony that we've heard, I'm going to submit to you that it's ridiculous," Harrington said.