The defense unexpectedly closed its case in the murder trial of Charlene Hill, a Pecan Grove woman who is being tried for shooting and killing her reportedly abusive husband in Nov., 2006. Three defense witnesses, all of whom testified about Danny Hill’s volatile temper, were the only witnesses heard for the day as attorneys spent several hours away from the jury, arguing various orders.

Susan Watts, who operated an electrical contracting business with her husband in the warehouse owned by the Hills, was the first witness of the day. She related one particular incident when she passed the Hill’s office to get to the rest room and heard the couple fighting loudly. She saw Danny Hill standing over Charlene Hill. She said she went in and told him, “You’re big and she’s little. You are going to hurt her.” Watts testified that Danny Hill threatened her and as she went to the door to leave, she looked around and saw him  pick up Charlene and throw her across the room where she landed on a desk. She said Charlene was trying to get out of the window.

Watts went to her office and tried to call her husband whereupon Charlene ran in and asked Watts to hide her. Watts said she put her behind some file cabinets where she stayed until they heard Danny Hill’s truck leave. Watts says Charlene was complaining about her stomach hurting, and Watts saw a very large footprint on her blouse in the stomach area. Although Watts begged her to go to the hospital, she said Charlene wanted to call her son Jeremy. Watts said she heard later that Charlene did go to the hospital.

The next witness was JoAnne West, an older woman who managed the Hills’ storage business for five years, quitting three years ago. She testified that she worked for and had daily contact with the Hills both before and after they were injured in a motorcycle accident. She said she enjoyed working with Charlene but tried to avoid Danny because he was so belligerent and difficult to be around. She said he could be cruel, and she dreaded him coming out of his office when customers were around.

West said before the motorcycle accident, she saw suspicious bruises on Charlene who always had an excuse for the injuries. After the accident, she said Danny Hill changed and would often try to approach customers but would argue with them and display fisticuffs. She said he would come outside his office and stand there and shout, “I’m still just like I always was!” She testified that a few of the customers were fearful of him.

West said she talked to Charlene after the murder and Charlene told her that Danny came home angry that day because of the treatment he got at the storage facility. She told West she backed away from him, but he thought she didn’t care although she did. She told West she was trying to protect herself and thought she would slow him down. West said Charlene was so good to Danny and would never make the comments about him that she was accused of making by the children in front of the children. West said Charlene protected him way too much, was even overprotective.

The last defense witness was Jeff Douglas, who related his 17 years friendship with Danny Hill. Douglas said he and his wife had land adjacent to the Hills in Kerrville and that he, Douglas, had even encouraged them to purchase the land. Douglas is in the real estate management business and said he first came to know Danny because he did landscape work for him in various communities. He said he like Danny and that he had a wonderful work ethic. “He was the hardest worker I know,” he said.

West said they had several mutual friends and eventually went on many hunting and fishing trips together. He testified that he and his wife also socialized with the Hills. He said he was concerned that Danny was sometimes violent. He related one incident at a bachelor party when Danny got into an argument with a man whose land abutted his. They got into an argument about water flow on their properties when Danny lost control and tossed the 5’9” man from wall to wall. West said he could not get his attention to stop him and that he was shocked by the incident.

West said Danny Hill himself brought up the tattoos on his arm. He told West that the tattoo “1% er” had to be earned, and it meant you have to take someone out. West testified that he took it to mean that you had to have killed someone, but he, West, didn’t want to talk about it.

He also related how Hill had told him about fighting with Charlene, then sneaking up behind her in the shower, pushing her down and throwing her on the bed where he raped her.

West said after the motorcycle accident, Hill lost a lot of his memory of the past, and they had to show him pictures to get him to remember. He said Charlene took good care of him.

West said that Danny Hill would become visibly upset and you could tell it because of his body language, and his eye would become fixed and glazed. West related the time a Fed Ex driver clipped one of Danny’s trucks whereupon Danny beat the driver to the point of putting him in the hospital.

He related one incident when several couples were having a cookout and Danny became enraged because Charlene had bought the steaks only 1 1/2 inch thick instead of the 2 inch steaks he had ordered. West said they couldn’t stand there and let Danny beat her up, nor did they want to shoot him. He said they hid the women under the porch and he and another man took chairs to fend Danny off.

West said after the accident Danny Hill would spend money without thinking. He said Hill wanted some deer feeders and West offered to help him find some like he had. He said Hill wanted some that were inappropriate for the terrain of their property and became agitated when he was encouraged to get something else. He said Hill quit talking and went out and bought the deer feeders he wanted anyway even though they were twice the price.

West said he never saw or heard Charlene belittle Danny after the accident. When asked if he was surprised after hearing about Charlene shooting Danny, West said he was only surprised because he expected it to be the other way around.

West said the comment attributed to Charlene was probably made by him when he, his wife, and the children were talking about where Charlene would live after Danny’s death. He said the boys wanted to move the camper trailer that was on the property in Kerrville to Houston for her. He said he was the one to make the comment that “Millionaires don’t live in trailers.”

Although the prosecutor tried to get West to say something bad about Charlene, he was never able to get that from this witness.

After that, the defense rested with rebuttal witnesses expected to begin Friday. Courthouse pundits said it had been “bash Danny time” and now it was going to be “bash Charlene” time.

Charlene Hill, the Pecan Grove woman charged with murdering her husband, continued  on the stand on Wednesday. Prosecutor Jill Stotts continued her questioning about the events of the two to three minutes in the Hill bedroom on Nov. 14, 2006 when Charlene shot her husband. Ms. Stotts grilled Charlene to the point that  Judge Jim Shoemake said to ease up and eventually told the prosecution that he didn’t want to hear the testimony from Tuesday all over again.

Charlene Hill again denied that she told family members that she was either going to commit or kill her husband. She denied offering her daughter’s boyfriend, currently in prison, $5,000 to kill Danny. But it did give the prosecution another chance to tell the jury about some of the claims.

Charlene Hill testified that when Danny first came home after the motorcycle accident, he was violent but did not mean to be. She thought he couldn’t help it. She said he would throw things, break things, then curl up in a ball and cry. However, she could get him to calm down. But after several surgeries, he became more and more volatile.

She testified that he had several buyers for Precision Grounds Management but wouldn’t sell it because the buyers “weren’t good enough.” She said the $1 million that was supposedly in her name only was that way because she was the only one who had gone to the bank with her signature, but that Danny was a principal in the company and could sign on any company accounts. She said she moved the money to a money market account in order to get interest on the deposit until they decided how to invest it. She said when Danny died, his estate was probably worth $4 million, but now she felt it was only worth $2 million.

Although Charlene didn’t recall the statement she gave one of the investigative officers who answered the call the night of the shooting, the prosecution had a recording, which Charlene didn’t realize they were taping as she sat on the curb waiting for the police and emergency people. But her attorney George Parnham anticipated the playing of the recording and was ready with a transcript. This was fortunate because it showed that Charlene’s testimony has not changed. The Fort Bend sheriff’s department officer that made the recording was new to the job and didn’t get a lot of audible comments from Charlene. The ones she did get did not hurt Charlene in this case.

The prosecution opined that the shooting was the result of Charlene standing up to her husband hoping he would back off. Charlene said Danny Hill looked like a grizzly bear getting ready to attack.

The next witnesses were Roy and Dorothy Kelly, who had lived next door to the Hills for several years. Mr. Kelly testified that he had a run-in with Danny over a sprinkler system. He said Danny was like a rattlesnake ready to strike, but he (Mr. Kelly) told Hill right off that if he had any trouble with him, he would sue. Mrs. Kelly said Charlene was the nicest person and invited them to bring their grandchildren to swim. She said the only time they did, Danny came home and was furious, accusing them of trespassing.

Colin Green, a pastor who now lives in Canada and came from there to testify, said he counseled the couple for their marital discord. He said he also performed the funeral service for Danny Hill. He testified that the children told him that Danny became more violent after the accident, which contradicted earlier testimony by their son and son’s wife. The pastor said the family dynamics were that everyone had to make Danny happy; the children were co-dependents; and Charlene was the enabler. He said he visited Charlene in jail and she told him it was “him or me.”

The prosecution asked Pastor Green if since Charlene had 30 years of experience with Danny, would she be the one to know what button to push. He replied yes and I thought, “It’s Charlene’s fault Danny is an asshole?”

The next witness was Jennifer Hinch, a friend of Charlene’s for 19 years. Ms. Hinch testified that she rented a house from the Hills for about two years.  She said she noticed two or three round holes in the door of the master bedroom. When she asked Danny what they were, he said they were where he missed, shot and missed, then he laughed.

*Editor’s note: It may be bad to speak ill of the dead, but so many people have called me and said they have been reading about the trial and want me to know what a terrible person Danny Hill was and how badly he treated his family.

I believe this catches me up. I’ll try to post Thursday’s events after I play gin Thursday night. bkc

The trial of a Pecan Grove woman accused of killing her husband in Nov., 2006 is continuing in Judge Jim Shoemake’s 434th District Court. Charlene Hill, 52, has entered a plea of  self defense for shooting her husband, Danny Hill, 49, in their home, and claims he had abused her for years.

Under cross examination by the prosecution, Charlene Hill testified that the fateful day of Nov. 14, 2006 started out with her husband going to his office and her staying at home, rather than going to the office herself. She said she waited at home for the over repair man because Danny Hill had pulled off the oven door in a fit of rage because something wasn’t cooking properly.

After lunch, she joined her husband at the office. At the office, they had words because he wanted to order a pre-fab metal shed for their Kerrville property, and she disagreed due to the fact they had never built that way. He became enraged and knocked her out of her chair so hard she fell over backwards and the chair broke. Her son wanted her to stop by and see a meat grinder he had just acquired which she did. She said she got home about 4 p.m. and started dinner. She said her brother-in-law, Craig Hill, who had bought the storage business from them, called and told her that Danny was mad and had a list of people he was threatening to kill, including her son Jeremy. He told her to leave.

She said Danny Hill arrived home before she could leave and parked behind her in the driveway. She said she could tell by his body language that he was angry. He accused her of telling their sons about their earlier fight at the office. She denied it and told him to call the sons. She said he calmed down and said he had a headache. She offered to get him some Rose Oil and rub it on his head. He refused and got up and started talking about how mad he was at his mother, his manager, his manager’s wife and his brother, pacing on his side of the bed. Meanwhile she was folding laundry she had earlier placed on the bed. She took the folded towels to the kitchen, turned off dinner and said it made him angry that she left the room. He said he was going to drive over and kill his brother and his brother’s wife if she got in the way. She told him to eat, take a bath, let it go, trying to calm him down.

She said in trying to calm him down, she became the focus of his rage. His eyes started changing when he became aggressive toward someone. She said she thought she was trapped  even though he was on the other side of the bed from her. She said she reached into the night stand and put the gun that was in there on the bed to try to warn him to calm down. She told him to stop and not come any closer and he said he was going to kill her. She said he said that was not what he was thinking and he laughed. “You want to have a shoot-out, we’ll have a shoot out,” he said. She said she picked up the gun when he started coming around the bed saying, “You are a dead bitch!” She said she was closer to the door but believed she was in danger. “My husband is a lethal weapon without a gun,” she declared.

Several members of what looked like the Aryan Brotherhood (shaved heads, many tattoos) were in the courtroom, and when Charlene Hill looked at them about that time, she started sobbing. Court stopped for a minute for her to regain her composure. She said he had both arms in motion and was coming toward her. She said she didn’t know how many shots she fired, but after she fired and he finally stopped, she crawled to the bedside table to call 911. She said the 911 operator told her to put something on his arm wound, but she was afraid he would grab her.

When the prosecution asked her what she was afraid of as he had three bullets in him, she replied, “That wouldn’t stop my husband.”

She testified that it had been 30 years since she had shot a gun much and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. But she remembered that she had shot that particular gun twice before to try it out. Police found eight guns in her husband’s pickup that night.

Under intense questioning by Prosecutor Jill Stotts, Charlene Hill tried to detail every move she and Danny Hill made in the bedroom. She was asked over and over about her testimony. She denied many of the accusations that her family members, all of whom are suing her for wrongful death, had previously made. She denied telling sons Jeremy and Joby that he really was not coming after her. She said almost immediately after she gave them $1 million, they had a dinner where both boys were drinking. She said they threw  pictures of Danny on the table and told her what a wonderful man he was and started grilling her about what happened that night. The eldest son had earlier admitted that the boys had hatched a plan to kill their father when they were younger.

When asked why she didn’t leave him when the children were young, she said she took them to California for three months and he followed her there and promised he had quit drinking.

She said she filed for divorce one time in 2003 and during that time some people (Aryan Brotherhood) broke into the house and threatened her that she could disappear. She said she non-suited him the next day and signed everything over to him. She said she called her son, not the police.

Monday Trial Update..........
The State’s last witness took the stand on Monday. It was the assistant medical examiner, Dr. Sara Doyle from the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office. She detailed the three shots in Danny Hill’s body and said he could not have had purposeful movement in his lower extremities after the shot that severed his spinal column. This testimony appeared to contradict that of the emergency medical team who said Danny Hill continued to fight them when they put him in the ambulance, and was central to Charlene Hill’s contention that Danny Hill kept coming after she shot him the first two times.

The autopsy photos shown to the jury on the overhead projector were graphic and even showed Hill’s face in death. They were gruesome to see.

However, these very graphic death photos offered the defense some points as well, as they also showed the tattoos Hill had on his body--that of a Nazi Swastika on one arm, which is the sign of the Aryan Brotherhood, and a tattoo on the other arm that reads “1% er.”  Charlene later testified that Danny got the tattoos in prison.

The defense team started out their questioning with that of  Suzanne Kornblit, the attorney appointed to probate Danny Hill’s estate. Ms. Kornblit testified that contrary to previous testimony that Charlene Hill had given her son a check for $1 million which he claimed was a gift, estate assets or corporate assets can not be gifted.

Ms. Kornblit also testified that Jeremy had not told the probate attorney (her) about Fort Bend Imperial Management or the $390,000 he had supposedly after receiving from Charlene Hill. Earlier testimony revealed that most of that money is gone as Jeremy almost immediately doled it out to his brother and sister and used some to pay off his own house.

Charlene Hill was the next witness is her own defense. She spent much of the rest of the day detailing her life with Danny Hill, how they were both in the military police in Europe but continued their relationship when they came home to the states. She said they were married in July, 1981 and spent their honeymoon in Port Aransas. She said they were so poor and wanted to go deep sea fishing so spent the night on the beach so they could afford the fishing trip. In their early relationship, she said he was a wonderful father and even delivered their daughter at home himself.

She testified they started their first business, Precision Ground Maintenance, which was a landscape maintenance company. Danny Hill handled all the operations while she helped out with billing and running the office. The business grew and they added more office personnel and employees.

In 1999, they built a storage facility, which was also a successful business. Charlene Hill testified that Danny was prone to fits of anger, rages, and was very volatile at times. When he became angry, she said he would become physical. “What I would do would enrage him; what I wouldn’t do would enrage him,” she said.  

Charlene Hill testified that not only did he beat up on her but he also beat their children. A particularly memorable beating took place at the office when he was choking her on the floor and someone entered the office. According to her testimony, he threw her behind her desk. After that incident she went to the hospital emergency room at Poly Ryan (now Oak Bend) where she was diagnosed with a concussion and a broken rib.

His anger was also directed at the children when in 1998 he attacked Joby, who had come home “messed up.” They ended up in the closet with Danny beating his son with a closet rod. He sat on top of the boy and beat him with his fists. Charlene said Joby was not fighting back. She also pointed out that he was a growing boy weighing about 150, while Danny Hill was 6’5” and weighed 235-240 lbs. “Danny’s whole body was a lethal weapon,” she said. She testified that she eventually got him off Joby who had a broken arm and an unrecognizable face. The police came and Danny shut the door on the police person’s arm.

Charlene testified that she never pressed changes against her husband, but asked for counseling and anger management sessions instead.  She testified that she kept going to the counseling sessions long after her husband stopped and that she joined three different battered women’s groups. She said he threw her into a mirrored headboard which broke and cut her shoulder. He also threw her into a plexiglass door which hospitalized her, but she was not interviewed by anyone and no charges were entered.
She said he even came at their daughter with a dinner fork, threw her onto a glass table, and once, when daughter Jamie was 15 or 16, he hog tied her.

She said they tried to keep away from the police.

She said the kids saw much of the abuse but didn’t tell. She said at an outdoor barbecue, he became enraged because she bought 1 1/2 inch steaks instead of 2 inch steaks. She said she ended up hiding under a picnic table.

Then in Aug., 2003, both were injured in a motorcycle accident  which left her with a injured leg and a continuing limp, but left Danny Hill with a brain injury and numerous broken bones. He was in the hospital for over six weeks and at TIRR for three months. After his release for the hospitals, he was prone to fits of anger, rages and was very volatile at times. When he became angry, he would become physical.

She testified that the accident left him with the mental age of a 12-year-old. He would become frustrated when he couldn’t remember or couldn’t figure something out. He would throw a temper tantrum like an 8-year -old as his level of control was worse than before the accident. She said that is when they decided to sell the business and move to Kerrville and raise exotic animals.

She said he would corner Charlene and grab her by the throat, then end up on top.

Charlene testified that as far as her making fun of Danny after their motorcycle accident, she may have laughed about it with the family because both had physical side effects afterwards. She said they were both incontinent and both wore Depends. She said they laughed about it to relieve the tension and make it seem not so bad.

Trial continues for a Pecan Grove woman on trial for shooting and killing her husband in November, 2006. The woman, Charlene Hill, 52, claimed she thought her husband, who had reportedly abused her for many years, was coming at her.

The eldest son, Jeremy Hill, continued to testify Friday. He explained what he did with the $1 million his mother gave him right after she got out of jail. He said he paid off his house, his brother's house, and gave his sister some money for a total of about $390,000. He said another $375,000 went back to his mother to pay bills and for taxes. 

Although several witnesses have testified about Danny Hill's temper and beatings he gave several members of the family, Jeremy Hill now says he only remembers one time when his father knocked him out and one time when he witnessed an attack on his mother in a van. He denied knowing or remembering his father sending her to the hospital or chasing his brother around with a butcher knife.

Jeremy said he was concerned that a wrongful death lawsuit being filed by Barbara Graham, Danny Hill's mother, might scoop up any proceeds of a recent sale of a business, and that was the reason he had his mother give him the $1 million and the reason he moved it into several different accounts that he controlled. He admitted that he, his sister, and Barbara Graham eventually filed a wrongful death suit against Charlene Hill. 

If Charlene Hill is found guilty of killing her husband, it would result in a slam dunk for the wrongful death suit. Jeremy was asked if he was basically asking for everything his mother owned, and he didn't deny it. 

He denied that he gave his mother three alternatives; (1) spend the rest of her life in jail, (2) spend the rest of her life in a mental institution, or (3) commit suicide. He did not deny that he asked about his father's insurance at the funeral home.

At one point in his testimony, Jeremy said he went to see George Parnham (the defense attorney) who advised him to get the money out of his mother's name. Later, an attorney with Parnham's firm read a statement to the jury which said he witnessed the discussion with Parnham and at no time did Parnham give this advice.

Jeremy, who gave the police more than one affidavit, was asked when his feelings about his mother's guilt began to change. He said it was when she said, "Millionaires don't live in trailers." She reportedly made this comment when she refused to go back to her home in Pecan Grove and Jeremy and his bother were planning on getting a fifth wheel trailer they had at the deer lease for his mother to live in until she felt like returning to her home. The trailer was purchased in 1985l, according to probate records.

He testified that it was the way she acted toward him and his brother. "Her voice changed like she was in charge." He said she wanted complete control. That was when he and his brother started questioning her actions. 

In discussing her threatening suicide after the death of her husband, her son was asked if he sought help for her, tried to talk her out of it, or checked on her. He admitted he didn't. When asked if it would have been fine with him if she committed suicide, he said, "I don't know how to answer that."

When asked what he valued the estate at he quickly answered, "$7 million" then added, "To $1 million."

Jeremy, his ex-sister-in-law, and his wife have all testified that Charlene Hill was vocal in her distain for Danny Hill after his motorcycle accident and constantly talked about his impotence and incontinence. When the defense attorney asked why the children continued to attend Sunday dinners with their parents if Charlene made it so miserable, Jeremy replied that he went because of his father who had turned into a "pussy cat" after the accident.

The couple's CPA Ron Briggs testified that Charlene was worried about Danny Hill's spending habits after he wrecked his pickup and immediately bought a new one. He said Danny Hill came by to see him one day and asked him how they knew each other and what Briggs did for him. Briggs said he was disoriented, asked for copies of his tax returns, but never returned to pick them up. 

The prosecution, led by assistant district attorney Chad Bridges, has not yet rested its case, which will continue Monday.

More Monday night.....