Episode Name - Killing for Custody
Story - A long custody battle turns Eric into the target of a malicious scheme by his ex-wife, Rosa, and her mother; Eric's grandmother gets caught in the crossfire.
All rights reserved @Dailymotion.com - Daily_Shows
Story - A long custody battle turns Eric into the target of a malicious scheme by his ex-wife, Rosa, and her mother; Eric's grandmother gets caught in the crossfire.
All rights reserved @Dailymotion.com - Daily_Shows
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Most murders are committed by people that you know.
00:07But having an entire family involved is definitely a rare sight.
00:25We had no idea what we had.
00:27Who's my suspect? Who's my victim?
00:39I am very lucky to be alive today.
00:43If they had gotten away with it, you know, my daughter would never know who I was.
00:49But I did step up to this challenge and I did persevere.
00:57In the early 2000s, I was starting a new career with Alameda County Social Services as an eligibility technician for the Medi-Cal Medicaid program.
01:13It was the first time where I actually did a job that involved helping people on a large scale.
01:19I'm not a super sociable person myself, but I did have some friends that I would visit on occasion.
01:28Typically, we'd hang out and play the Xbox or PlayStation at home.
01:33We've been friends now for almost 30 years.
01:37I guess he thought I was like a kindred spirit.
01:41Basically, we're both kind of like nerds.
01:45Eric is very bright.
01:48Man's got a mind like an encyclopedia.
01:51Good person, good friend, all around a good guy.
01:54If you have a problem with a man like him, then it's probably on you.
02:00In 2002, I was assigned to a training and I happened to be seated next to May.
02:09We just started talking and got along.
02:13May was a fun co-worker.
02:16She was friendly. She was outgoing.
02:19She made friends with a lot of people in the office.
02:22In October of 2002, May invited me to go on a hike with her and some other co-workers.
02:30When May picked me up, her daughter Rosa was driving and that's when May introduced me to Rosa for the first time.
02:40Rosa was an engineer at a tech company.
02:44She had a very strong, logical mind.
02:48Very analytical.
02:49I was just fascinated by when she would tell me about her history working in Silicon Valley.
02:55She seemed to enjoy the stupid jokes I would say and make.
03:03Here I am, spending a nice day with a beautiful lady.
03:07Super smart.
03:09And the butterflies started to get big.
03:12So, I got up my courage and I asked Rosa out.
03:16The next few months we had a lot of fun.
03:19We went on trips and a lot of nice dates.
03:23I could see that he was excited.
03:26He had like a giddiness.
03:29So, I was glad for him.
03:36Eric and I are very close.
03:39We talk every week and sometimes more.
03:42He seemed happy.
03:44He seemed happy.
03:48And I was happy for him.
03:50It seemed like it was getting serious rather quickly.
03:54He was this kind of inexperienced guy socially.
03:59Rosa was his first real girlfriend.
04:06I met her fairly soon I guess into it.
04:10And I would ask her questions.
04:13She would whisper in his ear.
04:17And Eric wouldn't answer.
04:21She would go over to him cupping her face.
04:25And she would talk into his ear.
04:28I couldn't figure out what that was about.
04:31I'm not like a super outgoing person but I guess I was more outgoing than she was.
04:37At least that's what I thought at the time.
04:40Initially I thought she was shy.
04:43But I know now that is kind of a way of controlling the room.
04:48I remember on our phone calls, Rosa was always listening in.
04:55And he had like a code word just to let me know that she was listening in.
04:59It was just odd.
05:01Odd behavior.
05:04I had this uncomfortable feeling about her.
05:09I could sense there was a certain tension beneath the surface.
05:14I didn't want to say anything at the time because I didn't feel it was honorable to do so.
05:19So I held my tongue.
05:22It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
05:32By the time we got to Valentine's Day of 2004, being that it was the season, love is in the air,
05:40I asked her to marry me.
05:43And she said yes, I was elated, I was excited.
05:48I called my sister, called my parents, and then I called my grandmother.
05:53They were all excited.
05:55My grandmother was really thrilled at the idea of possibly becoming a great grandmother.
06:00My grandmother's name was Selma and she always went by Sally.
06:06I was very close with Sally ever since I was a little kid.
06:10She was a doting grandmother.
06:13She was a very generous person.
06:15She was also very friendly.
06:19Sally was definitely much more of a social butterfly than I ever was.
06:26She really wanted to talk to Rosa about wedding plans and she just was so full of energy.
06:33And at this point, my grandmother was in her late 80s and I didn't usually see her that energetic.
06:39It was kind of a sight to see.
06:43After Rosa and I got engaged, May seemed very happy and thrilled and already had lots of ideas on things we could do.
06:53Rosa and May were really tight and May often would step in.
06:58She was a very forceful personality that Rosa would usually follow.
07:02And so would I because I basically would follow Rosa anywhere.
07:08I felt like everything's coming together.
07:11My job is working.
07:13I have a great relationship.
07:15The woman I loved and my family that I dearly loved were all coming together.
07:22It was a great moment in my life.
07:24But unfortunately, it didn't last very long because shortly after this, things started to take a turn for the worst.
07:40Rosa and I got married in April of 2005.
07:45I was just so happy watching her come on down the aisle and take my hand as we took our vows.
07:53This was definitely the way I wanted my life to be forever after.
08:02My mom was beaming.
08:05Oh yes, she was very happy for them.
08:09You know, I think in the beginning, everyone wants to think the best.
08:14And certainly my mom did.
08:23When we got to Hawaii on our honeymoon, my hope was that Rosa could relax.
08:32Because during the preparations for the wedding, she was stressed out.
08:36I mean, planning was hard and we just ended up having a lot of arguments.
08:41It's like she was always kind of agitated.
08:45And about a week into our honeymoon, we ended up having a really big fight.
08:53In the course of this fight, she threw a punch at me.
08:58She missed me.
09:00But that was the first real like warning sign.
09:08After we were married and setting up our life together, I'd already gone deep into debt with the wedding and the honeymoon.
09:18I was working, but Rosa was not.
09:22So we started having money problems.
09:25We had a lot of arguments about that.
09:28She was very manipulative about money.
09:31She was pushing him to bring that money in.
09:35It almost seemed to me that Eric was the cash cow.
09:41She daily seemed angry.
09:44It never stopped.
09:45It just seemed like there was always another fight.
09:49Then after a while, I started to get scared.
09:53What's going to set her off now?
09:56It got scary going home sometimes.
09:59She would never lead with physical violence or anything like that.
10:04But I knew from that one incident in Hawaii that she wasn't afraid to go there.
10:09Rosa began to separate Eric from his family.
10:15Over time, Rosa made these demands on how I shouldn't be talking to my friends or my family.
10:23To make her happy, I pulled away from my friends and family.
10:29I wasn't talking to my grandmother.
10:32I wasn't talking to my folks.
10:33Eric basically dropped out of my life.
10:36She was jealous of Eric's relationship with anybody and everybody outside of her.
10:44So she was doing the divide and conquer with Eric.
10:52A few months after Rosa and I got married, and Rosa got pregnant,
10:58I was really excited about it.
11:01I was really excited to become a father.
11:05We talked about having a traditional Catholic family.
11:09Husband, pregnant wife, six kids.
11:11This was one of the things I was looking forward to.
11:16My daughter was born on June 21, 2006.
11:21At first, being a dad was scary.
11:24I'd never had a baby and never had something so fragile and dependent on me,
11:29so I was always real nervous holding on to her and stuff.
11:34But I had fun. I enjoyed the time I got to spend with her.
11:42At the time our daughter was born, I was working two jobs.
11:47I was working during the day at my job with Alameda County Social Services
11:51from like 8.30 to 5.00.
11:54But from 11.30 p.m. to 8.00 a.m., I would be working at the pharmacy.
12:03And then I'd also work there on the weekends.
12:05So I was getting very, very little sleep.
12:10I took my vows seriously, and I took my role as a family man seriously,
12:15and I wanted to make it work.
12:17So I bent over backwards.
12:21But our fights started to escalate.
12:26She started threatening divorce,
12:29which shocked me because she always professed to be a devout Catholic,
12:34and they're not supposed to divorce.
12:36But that hurt me.
12:39She was playing him.
12:41Do it my way or I'm leaving.
12:43It was a manipulation.
12:45It was tough because I really did want this to work out.
12:48This is a woman I dearly loved,
12:50and this is somebody that I wanted to have a permanent life with.
12:54So I really wanted to make her happy.
12:58For a while, I felt kind of like a failure that I wasn't able to do that.
13:04So not too long after my daughter was born, Rosa took off.
13:10She started spending time at her parents' house.
13:14So when I would get home, they wouldn't be there.
13:17And what started off as a once-in-a-while thing
13:21started turning into an almost everyday thing.
13:26It was getting lonely,
13:29and it was hard not being able to spend much time with my daughter.
13:33I was starting to suffer mental health issues.
13:36I was suffering a heavy depression.
13:38I had to go on medication for that.
13:41It was a lot.
13:42It was a lot.
13:49In March of 2007, Rosa and I had separated.
13:55Well, I never decided to separate.
13:59She just kicked me out.
14:02At this point, Rosa had complete control of all of our assets.
14:09She had the house.
14:10She had the kids.
14:12She had the bank accounts.
14:15I had nowhere to go.
14:20He just showed up at my mom's door out of the blue.
14:25It was a real surprise to see him again.
14:28Luckily for me, my grandmother was kind enough to take me in,
14:34even though she didn't have any reason to
14:37because I basically isolated myself from all my family.
14:41My grandmother was a very kind and loving woman
14:45and willing to forgive me, and she took me back in.
14:49I think he began coming back out of his shell,
14:54but I think he felt a great deal of relief.
14:57I did.
15:02My grandmother's boyfriend's name was Lester.
15:04Lester definitely doted over her.
15:08I think my grandmother really loved him
15:11and really appreciated that he was very attentive to her
15:17because by the time she met him,
15:19it had been a few years after my grandfather had died.
15:22Sometimes they would stay at his place.
15:24Sometimes he would stay over at her house.
15:27Usually about four days they'd spend together,
15:30and when they weren't together,
15:31she always scheduled time so that they could talk on the phone.
15:36You could almost set your clock by the time they would call each other
15:41because that's how regimented she was.
15:44So that actually became a very important part of her life,
15:51and it also became a very important part of this case.
16:02At this point, Rosa wasn't letting me see our daughter at all.
16:07I asked her if I could come up and visit on her first birthday.
16:13Rosa just flat out refused.
16:17That's when I got angry.
16:20I decided at that point that I would sue for custody.
16:26Of course, it got ugly.
16:30Rosa sent an email to my job stating that I was off my medication
16:38and that I was going to shoot the place up.
16:41My office suspended me while they investigated this claim.
16:47I never owned a gun,
16:49and I never violated the medicine protocol
16:53that my doctor had put me on.
16:56I didn't want to lose my job.
16:59I have lawyer's fees and all these other bills that I've got to deal with.
17:03This investigation went over a period of a couple of months.
17:08They ordered me to go see a psychiatrist.
17:13He eventually cleared me so I could go back to work,
17:18and the custody suit was able to move forward.
17:21The judge ruled to give me 50% custody.
17:25I was really excited,
17:27but when I finally saw my daughter,
17:30it was a shock because when I saw her the last time,
17:33she was a tiny little baby,
17:35and now she's a walking toddler.
17:38I missed the first steps,
17:41you know, those kind of milestones,
17:43and that hurt my feelings.
17:47A few months after I was granted custody,
17:51granted 50% custody,
17:53Rosa made a new allegation against me.
17:57She called the cops and said that I was sexually abusing our daughter.
18:05She tried to use this as an excuse to make sure I lost any custody that I had in court.
18:12This is very frightening.
18:15There's not much sympathy for child abusers.
18:21That accusation was extremely damaging.
18:25I was constantly in a state of fear.
18:28Any minute I could lose my job,
18:30never see my daughter again,
18:32possibly even lose my freedom if they believed her.
18:36Rosa went to great lengths to try and paint him as this monster that he just does not,
18:42and these allegations were just pure bullshit.
18:45I was dumbstruck.
18:47I was, like, really shocked that she went that far.
18:49At the time, I believed Rosa's motivation was that she wanted to have custody.
18:55She wanted to be the parent.
18:58I think May wanted to have grandkids,
19:01and I think she probably pushed Rosa into the relationship with me.
19:07I think, you know, because May knew me from work,
19:10and I think May liked me,
19:12but Rosa just wanted me gone.
19:14It appeared that she'd do whatever she could do to get whatever she wanted,
19:19and she did.
19:26My name is Casey Bates.
19:28In 2011, I was a deputy district attorney in Alameda County.
19:33Through the course of the investigation by the court,
19:37it was determined that Eric didn't have any inappropriate sexual contact with his child.
19:42The allegation was completely fabricated.
19:47And that, ironically for Rosa,
19:50resulted in the court stripping her custody rights and providing them to Eric.
19:56So the table had completely turned.
20:01Over time, Rosa became less cooperative.
20:06She started to refuse to do what she was ordered to do.
20:10People just weren't believing her anymore,
20:13and that caused her to become more combative.
20:17The most conflict she had was with the family court mediator.
20:22Almost every time there was a report he had to turn in,
20:25he had a statement of some sort of conflict with her.
20:28The court started to give me more custody.
20:32What started off as a 50-50 custody turned into 60-40.
20:3770-30, and eventually 85% physical custody for me
20:43and 100% legal custody for me.
20:49She was proving the case by her own behaviors.
20:55And so she really did pretty much turn it all around against herself.
21:03During this time,
21:04May really did make herself indispensable
21:08because Rosa and I were not talking at all.
21:11May became the go-between.
21:14By this point, May was working in a different office than I was.
21:19I didn't have a lot of interactions with May,
21:22but the ones that we did were still cordial, friendly.
21:26You know, May was never one to, like, raise her voice
21:29or showingly hold a grudge, as I like to say.
21:32Showingly hold a grudge.
21:34As I learned later, she does hold a grudge,
21:36but she doesn't express it.
21:40During this time, my grandmother always tried to be there for my daughter.
21:48My daughter liked to play certain little games
21:51while we were sitting in bed with my grandmother.
21:54She would do, like, little things like roll back and forth between us and stuff.
21:58And, you know, my grandmother would be, like, yelling, like,
22:00roly-poly, roly-poly!
22:02And my daughter would just laugh.
22:04It was a fun period of time.
22:07I really cherished those memories.
22:20Hi, Sally. This is Liz.
22:22Four o'clock.
22:24Talk to you later.
22:26Bye bye.
22:28On this day, January 7 of 2009,
22:32Sally's boyfriend, Les, called
22:35to have their cocktail hour together,
22:38and she didn't answer the phone.
22:40He became worried.
22:42A few minutes later, he called again.
22:44Hi, Sally. It's me again.
22:46Wednesday afternoon.
22:48Four o'clock.
22:50He called again.
22:52Hi, Sally.
22:54Where are you?
22:55Four fifteen.
22:57Each time he called, he sounded more distressed.
23:00Keep quiet. I'm trying to call you.
23:03You can hear in his voice his concern became more and more heightened.
23:08Sally, where are you?
23:10Five o'clock.
23:12You could tell that he was truly worried about Sally,
23:16and it was at that point that he called Jeff and Uta Rowe,
23:20who are Les' son and daughter-in-law,
23:23to try to come over and do a wellness check on her.
23:29Back in January of 2009,
23:32I was the detective sergeant at Dublin Police Services.
23:36Jeff and Uta came down,
23:38because they have a good relationship now with Sally.
23:41They knocked on the door.
23:43Nobody came to the door.
23:45As they did that, they saw Eric Hill pull up to the house.
23:48As I was pulling up to the house,
23:51Lester's son, Jeff,
23:53and his wife, Uta,
23:55started to walk towards me.
23:58Jeff introduced himself,
24:01and I kind of had a bad feeling.
24:05At this point,
24:07my grandmother was starting to get into poor health.
24:10I was worried that something might have happened to her.
24:14You know, a stroke,
24:15or a heart attack, or something like that.
24:20So Eric and his daughter, Jeff and Uta,
24:23entered through the garage door into the house.
24:27Jeff and Uta stayed downstairs.
24:29Eric went upstairs with his daughter.
24:36When I went upstairs,
24:38I didn't see her in her bed,
24:40I didn't see her in her room,
24:42or the bed,
24:43I didn't see her in her room,
24:45or the adjoining bathroom.
24:47I did not see my grandmother anywhere.
24:51I heard a noise
24:53behind me.
24:57And then I saw Mae.
25:02I was shocked.
25:04I was like, what are you doing here?
25:06And she said that
25:08my grandmother had called her.
25:09I kind of knew it was not right,
25:12but I was starting to panic in the moment.
25:16Mae said that my grandmother was downstairs in the garage,
25:20which didn't make sense to me,
25:22not at that hour.
25:26I set my daughter down and I asked Mae to watch her.
25:30As I ran out,
25:32Rosa jumped out from the baby's room,
25:35wearing a blazer.
25:37And then,
25:39she shot me with a taser gun.
25:42I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head.
25:46Mae hit me with a baton.
25:49I went down.
25:54Jeff and Euda started to hear
25:56an argument occur,
25:58and then they heard a sound which they thought
26:00was a gunshot.
26:02They retreated to the basement.
26:04It was a gunshot.
26:06They retreated from the house for their own safety,
26:09ran next door,
26:11to have the neighbor call 911.
26:35Rosa was kicking me and Mae was hitting me
26:38with a baton, and I was seeing all this blood
26:41dripping down onto the carpet.
26:43I kind of got it together enough
26:46to start to fight back.
26:48Pushing back and hitting back.
26:51There was two of them,
26:53so like I could kick one away,
26:55but then the other was hitting me,
26:57and then when I could push the other one away,
26:59then the first one was back and attacking me again.
27:01At one point,
27:02Mae dropped the baton,
27:05and I was able to grab it
27:08and just start swinging wildly,
27:10and I know I was hitting people,
27:12but eventually they were able
27:14to get it out of my hand.
27:18Mae took the baton
27:20and put it over my throat
27:22and was pushing down,
27:24and I was trying to get my hands up
27:27to push back,
27:29and that's when Rosa came.
27:30And that's when Rosa came out with the gun
27:33and put the gun in my chest
27:35and ordered me to stop.
27:43So I stopped fighting,
27:47and at that point,
27:52Mae asked if I would give up custody of my daughter,
27:57and Rosa cocked the gun.
28:06I was so scared.
28:11I was staring at the gun.
28:13Mae asked again if I'd give up custody.
28:16She said she was my friend
28:18and she's here to help,
28:20but Rosa's gonna hurt me.
28:22So I gave,
28:24I said I would give up custody.
28:29My daughter, she was locked in a dark bathroom,
28:33and I could hear her screaming,
28:35you know, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.
28:36You couldn't do anything for her?
28:41And I just didn't want to die.
28:42And I just didn't want to die I was so scared
29:07When I heard the sirens Rosa still had the gun and I felt like she could shoot
29:25me in any moment. Responding to a gunshot call there's there's a lot of things that
29:35go through your head. As you get closer and closer of course your adrenaline
29:40goes up because you don't know what you're getting into. We entered through
29:45the garage and as we go in we can hear screaming and a struggle upstairs. There
29:52was a male voice that screamed please don't kill me I don't want to die. My
30:00partner I reached the top of the stairs. There was blood spatter. There were
30:06tasers, bullets, a baton just strewn about the entire hallway. All we can see was a
30:15male and a female standing in the hallway. The male had his back to us and
30:19the female was facing us you can clearly see blood coming down her face. Trying to
30:24decipher who's my suspect who's my victim was pretty difficult. Given the
30:30fact we didn't know who our suspect was the instructions were to have everyone
30:35show us their hands, don't move. Unfortunately the male did not listen to
30:41those instructions. He jumped from the hallway into a bedroom. They were
30:46yelling at me not to move but I also knew that Rosa was pointing a gun so I
30:54kept moving where I knew at least Rosa couldn't hit me from where she was. I
30:59just was like get away get away get away. At that point my partner tased him to
31:07subdue him that way we could control the scene. The taser he had was really
31:13powerful and I seized up I couldn't move. Eric was screaming out that his
31:20two-year-old daughter was in a bathroom upstairs and looking down the hall
31:26there's a mirror and I saw a reflection of another person who was hiding in a
31:31bedroom across the hallway. At this point we identify that there are two women in
31:38this residence one later identified as May and Rosa who was in the bedroom.
31:46Since they didn't know what was going on at the time they basically just
31:49handcuffed all of us and they put me in a police car and they put me in an
31:56ambulance. Rosa was just standing on the front lawn
32:00handcuffed for a long time and at that point that's when they found my daughter
32:06in locked in the bathroom and they called CPS and and while I was locked in
32:12the police car I was able to see the CPS worker holding my daughter's hand and
32:18walking away from the house. We had two females up there that was were smaller
32:24in stature and we had Eric Hill who was much larger in stature so trying to
32:29determine who assaulted who was confusing. Rosa's demeanor was weirdly
32:34calm not someone that was just involved in a major altercation. May's demeanor
32:43also calm very calculated odd for sure. At the time of incident I had been a
32:53detective with Dublin Police Services for approximately three years.
32:59My partner and I when we first got to the scene Eric was in the back of the
33:05patrol car his eyes were wild he was sweating he was in disarray and he was
33:12trying to get attention from anybody was passing by to say where is my
33:17grandmother. Eric was yelling and screaming she's somewhere they've done
33:23something to her and you can hear the fear in his voice. So our concern that we
33:30can't find Sally is very high at this point. She doesn't drive she doesn't
33:35leave the house without some type of assistance she has to be there somewhere.
33:47During the search I went upstairs I saw that there was nobody else in the house
33:52nobody in the bedrooms and so where is Sally? May and Rosa were both searched
34:00and they found a revolver in one of Rosa's pockets which led us more to
34:05believe that maybe these are our suspects as opposed to Eric. Eric lived
34:10at that residence so he had a reason to be there. Rosa and May had no reason to
34:16be there they did not live there whatsoever. Based on what we have and the
34:22circumstances that are there May and Rosa are placed under arrest on suspicion
34:28of a felony. It was much more to this incident than a domestic violence
34:34incident. It's much more sinister than we anticipated. Once we find that Rosa has a
34:42firearm in her pocket we need to interview her.
34:50So I along with my partner we drove her to the police station. She's telling us
35:00that there was this ongoing custody dispute and that's basically the reason
35:04why she was there at the house.
35:27She said they waited for Eric to arrive. When Eric
35:32arrived she said he went berserk.
35:54We knew she was playing a game. She is playing a part of being this very
36:00passive, very quiet, innocent, I'm the victim portrayal. What was suspicious to
36:09me was why did she enter into a house that didn't belong to her? Sally's not
36:15there. Why is she going into the house? She never once told us I'm going into
36:19the house to check on Sally. That wasn't why she was going inside. We knew she was
36:25being deceptive. She was dancing around our questions answering them in
36:29different ways and it was kind of to what degree she was being deceptive. In
36:36the middle of our interview with Rosa my partner received a phone call from one
36:42of the other detectives on scene and they conveyed to my partner that Selma
36:49had been found.
36:52We looked in the backyard and on the side yard we found a shed that was
37:00locked and we further investigated into that shed and we saw a garbage can
37:04through a crack in the door and in that garbage can we could see some some bed
37:09sheets which seemed kind of strange to us to have bed sheets in a garbage can
37:14and an exterior shed. We were able to get some bolt cutters and open that shed.
37:21And before doing anything we saw that from those bed sheets we could see what
37:28looked to be a human foot and our hearts dropped at that point for sure and turned
37:36out to be positively identified later as Sally Hill. It was clear that she did not
37:43just die of natural causes. Somebody killed her and placed her headfirst in a
37:50garbage can.
37:55I know people are capable of horrible things but I would never have thought
38:01they would do it against my mom. I mean what do you say about that? What an
38:09awful thing to do to anybody but 91 year old woman who wouldn't hurt anybody.
38:21After learning about finding the grandmother in the shed, now we have
38:29somebody who was at the home, said no one was home at the time, had gone into the
38:35house. We knew we were talking to the right person. She said at no point in
38:41time did she ever encounter the grandmother and she said she walked
38:45through the house the first floor and the second floor and never never saw her.
38:48So my partner asked her, well what about outside? Did you see the shed that was
38:53out there? And when he asked her that question she had a physical reaction to
39:00the reference to the shed. Her lip quivered right before she answered and
39:06she answered no she was unaware. We took a break because we both you know conferred
39:11with one another, did you see that? And we both saw her physical reaction to that.
39:18Two days later the autopsy results came back for Sally Hill and it was found
39:24that her cause of death was strangulation. She was also found to have
39:29several lacerations and abrasions about her body. They also found some defensive
39:35wounds on her hand so it looks like she did put up a fight.
39:43Even though we found everybody involved on scene, the investigation didn't stop
39:48there and we had to make sure that we were able to tie the weapons that were
39:51brought to the scene to Rosa and May and make sure that we were able to dispel
39:58her argument that these were Eric's weapons used by Eric upon her and her
40:04mother May.
40:08At the scene of this crime there were two tasers, there were two stun guns,
40:14there were two handguns, two of pretty much everything which leads me to
40:19believe that there were gonna be two people that were gonna go in and had a
40:24plan to carry out this crime. One suspicious piece of evidence that we
40:29found was a backpack on this side of the house. Some of the items that were found
40:33in the black backpack, brown and green braided rope, crossbows, a hunting knife.
40:41You also had a throwing star, glass cutter, an 18-inch pry bar. So this was
40:49like a burglary set slash kidnap pack. And Rosa's car was found about a half a
40:55block away. We located many items that were of concern, one being a samurai
41:02sword as well as leg irons.
41:09Typically when we're looking into a homicide we look for any type of
41:13evidence that may help us at that person's residence. I found that there
41:19was a Brentwood location and Rosa and May were getting mail there. So we did a
41:26search warrant of the Brentwood home and that was a jackpot. We walk in the door
41:31and we see numerous, numerous pieces of evidence that connect to our crime scene.
41:36We also found a tag for a .32 caliber firearm which was what was found in
41:42Rosa's possession. We found handwritings that were really suspicious and strange
41:48to us. One of the writings was a revenge for Rosa. It just listed a bunch of
41:55people and on that list was Gregory Hill, Eric Hill, as well as Sally Hill.
42:03The notes were written in two different hands. So we know that Rosa wrote some
42:07notes and we know that May wrote other notes. So both of them were involved in
42:11planning. One month before the killing Rosa wrote a note that said save BB
42:18referring to the baby and to get weapons and that she needed to do target
42:25practicing. So the planning that went into this was at least a month before
42:31the actual killing itself and I believe was months in the making.
42:38But we also found notes that Rosa was stalking Eric and she was taking notes
42:44as to what time he got home, what time he was seen picking up their child at
42:49childcare. She was definitely planning a time that would be best to take down
42:56Eric and take custody of their child. We also found several different computers.
43:04One of the main things that stood out from the forensic search on the
43:08computers was a Google search that said how to murder. She was looking up
43:14poisoning, explosives, researching the best way to kill without being traceable.
43:23Every piece of evidence just built a stronger case against her. Whereas she
43:29can't play the self-defense, this was a clear case of full intent. One of the
43:36items that we did submit for DNA testing was a taser that was in the upstairs
43:40room of the Pepper Tree residence. The DNA that was on the prongs of that taser
43:46come back to Selma Hill. Additional DNA on the handle and on the button come
43:51back to Rosa Hill. Based on that, we believe that Rosa Hill used a taser on
44:00Sally Hill and eventually killed her on January 7th, 2009.
44:11It is ironic that in her efforts to remain traceless that we found every
44:19piece of evidence that we needed to seal her fate.
44:25This was the most planned, premeditated, calculated killing that I've ever come
44:32in contact with in my 26 some odd years of being a DA. Having lost her child to
44:39Eric, Rosa and her mother came up with a plan that they dubbed Operation Custody.
44:47Operation Custody was a plan to try to get the legal rights back to Rosa Hill's
44:53child. And to accomplish that, the plan was to murder Eric's grandmother and
45:00blame the murder on Eric and to get Eric to write a confession that he killed her
45:07because she had confronted him with the sexual abuse of his child and that he
45:12became enraged and killed her and put her in the garbage can in the back of
45:18the home. Their plan continued that in that moment of despair Eric Hill would
45:24kill himself and there'd be no legal custody for anyone except for Rosa Hill.
45:32It would have been proven that she was right all along, that Eric was a
45:36molester, that she didn't pull a fraud on the court and that she was rightfully
45:41reunited with her child. The life of a 91 year old woman who was an innocent in
45:48all of this didn't matter. She was caught up in a larger plan to get custody of
45:53her child.
46:06My grandmother, Sally, was at the end of a long, happy life. But she did not
46:21deserve that ending that she got. She was a good woman who deserved to pass on
46:31peacefully. Rosa did not give her that courtesy and that's really what is the
46:38most unforgivable here. All these years later I'm still angry, extremely angry.
46:51They say you should forgive but some things I think it would be a disservice
46:56to humanity to forgive. It would certainly be a disservice to mom.
47:07Lester definitely loved Sally and when she died he was crushed. It really
47:12affected him a lot. After mom died he wanted a little thing of the ashes and
47:20I'd go over to see him and he'd just be looking at that urn and talking to Sally
47:27and oh it was so sad, it was so sad. I'm just always grateful that they found each
47:36other and had that last 11 years of their lives together.
47:51I'm doing fine. I'm wonderful. I've been a good father. I've had a good family.
48:00The irony of all of this is that I have led the life that Rosa and I talked
48:07about having and she missed out on all of it.
48:14It hasn't been easy as a single dad but my daughter has grown into a wonderful
48:23woman. She's got a good solid head on her shoulder. She's a talented artist. I'm
48:30proud that I had a lot to do with that.