Jessica Hill

Background

Jessica Hill was convicted in connection with the death of her husband, Michael “Shane” Hill.

Hill and Shane Hill married in 2002, and two children were born to the marriage. Jessica began dating Shane Hill when she was sixteen years old.

Daniel Blair lived with the Hills and helped raise the children. In 2005, Shane discovered Blair and Jessica were involved in an affair, and Blair moved out of the Hills' home. Jessica left Shane and, with her two children, moved in with Blair. After about three months, Jessica and the children returned to live with Shane.

Shane and Blair tried to repair their friendship but were unsuccessful, creating tension between the two men. A friend described Shane and Blair as “always . . . said they were going to beat each other up.”

Shane worked on a sheep farm and often carried a pistol while he did chores.

The offence

On May 28, 2007, at approximately 11:10 a.m. and again at 11:16 a.m., Shane Hill called 911 to report that he had accidentally shot himself. He died shortly thereafter.

An ensuing investigation revealed that Shane had in fact been gunned down.

Investigation

Investigators interviewed Jessica at the Boone County Sheriff's Office.

On the date of Shane's death, Jason Christensen, a special agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), and another officer spoke with Jessica for roughly twenty minutes at the Boone County Sheriff's Office. Jessica informed the officers she did not know of anyone who had a conflict with Shane. She then volunteered that she had an affair with Blair in 2005 but stated that she and Shane were back together and at the strongest point in their relationship. She told officers she did not think Blair was involved in Shane's death. She also informed officers that she had last seen Blair four months earlier when she saw him walking as she drove through Boone.

On May 30, 2007, two officers spoke with Jessica and with Shane's parents at the Boone County Sheriff's Office. Terrance Cowman, special agent in charge with DCI, testified that he brought the family in to have them listen to the tapes of Shane calling 911. Cowman stated Jessica was “stoic” while she listened to the tapes and showed no emotion.

After the 911 calls were played, Jessica told the officers she did not want any more ballistic testing done on Shane's body. Cowman then spoke with Shane's mother on May 31, 2007, and Shane's mother informed him that the content of messages on a computer used by Jessica suggested she was involved in an ongoing relationship with Blair. After receiving this information, Cowman contacted Jessica and asked her to come to the sheriff's office a third time.

Brett Braafhart, an agent with DCI, and Special Agent Matt Sauer interviewed Jessica at the Boone County Sheriff's Office on May 31, 2007. The interview was recorded, and the first approximate eighty minutes of the interview were played for the jury.

During the recorded interview, Jessica initially stated that she and Blair talked periodically after their affair for roughly two years. She stated that after she saw Blair walking by the side of the road roughly four months earlier, she contacted Blair and they got together once, roughly two to three months earlier, and it was the only time she had been with Blair since the affair in 2005. She admitted that she still talked with Blair periodically on the phone but said she had not seen him since Shane's death. Officers informed Jessica they were interested in her relationship with Blair because they believed it was more than what she was telling them.

Jessica then stated that she and Blair “did talk all the time.” She admitted to meeting Blair after work at his place. She stated that Blair came to Shane's mother's home on the night of Shane's death. She admitted to having sexual contact with Blair within the last two weeks. She stated that Blair loved her and knew she was not happy with Shane, but he also knew she would never leave Shane for him.

Jessica admitted she told Blair and others on many occasions that she wished Shane would disappear, describing these statements as “things that you don't really mean but you say.” She expressed sadness that her relationship with Blair was no longer hidden. Jessica stated that she and Blair had messaged back and forth on the morning of Shane's death, including messaging Blair that Shane had finally left for work, which she described as a regular occurrence.

Jessica stated that Blair asked what Shane was driving, and she provided that information. She again expressed to Blair that she wished Shane would never come home. When asked, Jessica stated she did not suspect that Blair harmed Shane.

Jessica stated that on previous occasions, she had told Blair she would never want him to be the one that shot Shane. She stated that she did not tell anyone to kill Shane, did not pay anyone to kill him, did not know anything about his murder, and did not want it to happen.

Evidence about other individuals

Other evidence implicated Blair and Blair’s roommate, Aron Moss, in Shane's murder.

In May 2007, Blair and Moss obtained a 30-06 rifle. On May 17, 2007, Blair, along with an unidentified man, bought two boxes of 30-06 ammunition.

Around the time of Shane’s calls to 911, a passenger in a car saw a man later identified as Moss walking across the farmyard carrying a rifle. DNA matching Moss’s DNA was found on the sling of a rifle from which a bullet recovered from Shane's body had been fired. Fingerprints made by Blair and Moss were found on a box of 30-06 ammunition.

Blair spoke with a friend, Lisa Lewis, the weekend before Shane's death and requested that she provide an alibi. Blair requested that if anyone asked anything about him, she say that she was with him all day on Memorial Day (May 28, 2007).

Lewis testified that when Lewis saw Blair on the evening of May 28, he informed her “that they had made somebody disappear.” Blair texted Lewis later that night to inquire whether she had said anything about their conversation and to ask that she not discuss their conversation with anyone.

Lewis talked to Blair several days after Shane's death, and Lewis testified that Blair told her “that they had shot somebody.” Lewis testified Blair told her they did this because “they did not like the way he was treating his wife and they would be together no matter what.” Lewis testified that Blair further informed her that “Aron pulled the trigger.” Lewis testified that when Blair told her they shot somebody, she assumed he meant himself and Moss. Lewis testified she had been friends with Moss and Blair for several months and did not know Jessica.

Charges and venue

On June 8, 2007, Jessica was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

At some point, the case was moved to Pottawattamie County after her attorney successfully asked to have the case moved there.

At the close of the evidence, the court instructed the jury that the state was required to prove Jessica aided and abetted the commission of Shane's murder.

A jury returned a verdict of guilty of the lesser-included offense of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

Trial

Jessica’s trial was described as the third trial in the case.

Jessica’s trial was held in Pottawattamie County on a change of venue.

Jurors found Jessica aided and abetted the shooting by Daniel Blair and Aron Moss, Blair’s roommate. Blair and Moss were both charged in connection with Shane's death and had been convicted by the time of Jessica's trial.

A ruling on a motion in limine prevented the jury from knowing about Blair's and Moss's convictions.

Jessica appealed, arguing multiple issues including errors related to the admission of a recorded interrogation, ineffective assistance of counsel, insufficient evidence, erroneous admission of statements made by her accomplice as hearsay, and ineffective counsel due to an alleged conflict of interest.

Appeals

The Iowa Court of Appeals reversed and remanded.

April 13, 2011 decision

On April 13, 2011, the Iowa Court of Appeals issued a ruling that reversed Hill’s second-degree murder conviction and remanded for a new trial.

The appeal included discussion of hearsay evidence. The court concluded that Lisa Lewis’s testimony about Blair’s statements constituted hearsay and was not admissible.

The court stated that the statements “constitutes hearsay and is not admissible.”

The court reasoned that the statements were material to proving Blair’s guilt and to prove that Blair and Moss were at the farm when Shane Hill was shot but did not indicate that Jessica Hill “participated in, encouraged, or knew of the crime.”

The court agreed that the statements were not admissible as statements made by Blair in furtherance of a conspiracy and that they were not admissible under Iowa Rule of Evidence 5.804(b)(3) as statements against interest. The court also rejected admission under the residual hearsay exception, concluding the statements were not probative on Jessica’s participation in the crime. The court concluded that Jessica was prejudiced by the admission of the hearsay statements and therefore reversed the judgment and remanded for a new trial.

The court also addressed other issues likely to arise on retrial, including the admission of recorded interrogation. The court concluded it would not be error to admit the first roughly eighty minutes of the interrogation at retrial, and noted that the inadmissible hearsay presented to the jury prejudiced Hill in an otherwise close case, which required reversal and remand.

The decision included procedural details including appeal from the Iowa District Court for Boone County with judges identified as David R. Danilson (pretrial motions) and Dale E. Ruigh (trial), and named justices indicating how the appeal was heard and decided.

Sentencing and guilty plea

Jessica Hill was sentenced to 50 years in prison on January 22, 2010.

After her conviction was overturned on appeal on April 12, 2011, Hill pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact in the death.

Hill was sentenced to 12 years in prison on November 22, 2013.

Other details

A Boone County judge imposed the maximum sentence described as 50 years in prison.

In discussion of trial evidence, investigators described that Shane Hill had attempted to shoot a dog at the time of his death, and initial reports included that he dialed 911 to report he had accidentally shot himself. Ballistics tests on the bullet failed to match the gun Shane Hill carried.

In an interview recounted as part of later narrative, Jessica Hill told investigators in an 80-minute interview with agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation three days after Shane's death that she often mentioned she “wished” Shane Hill would not come home.

Jessica Hill told investigators in the interview that on the morning of her husband’s death she told Blair that things would be easier if Shane Hill went away and that Blair told her “to be careful what I wish for.”

The interview recounted that Jessica said she continued to have an affair with Blair, who was “like a brother” to Shane Hill, even after she went back to her husband in 2005. It also recounted that when asked why others might believe she conspired with Blair to “do this,” Jessica said: “I have no idea. It has never crossed my mind,” and said “I didn't tell anybody to kill my husband.” It also recounted her statement “I never thought anything would come of it.”

The narrative also included testimony from Shane Hill’s mother, Patty Hill, that she found messages two days after her son’s death from Blair on Jessica Hill’s computer stating he loved her, missed her and would be with her soon, and that Patty Hill turned the computer over to the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.

Cowman said subpoenaed cell phone records showed 26 incoming text messages to Blair’s phone from a Yahoo.com account named jhill2k between 10:45 and 11:15 a.m. on the morning of the murder, and that Shane Hill called 911 at 11:10 a.m.

Cowman said 28 messages were sent from Blair to the Yahoo account in the same time period, and that investigators were unable to get the content of messages because they were deleted from Blair’s cell phone and the phone company did not retain the messages longer than three days unless asked by law enforcement through a preservation letter. Cowman said the letter was not faxed to the company until a week after the shooting.

Quotations

Jessica Hill stated in the recorded interview: “[Shane] was psychotic when I left him before. I wouldn't let [Blair] go anywhere by himself because I was always afraid that Shane was gonna sniper rifle him off the top of the house.”

Jessica Hill stated in the recorded interview: “things that you don't really mean but you say.”

In the recorded interview, Jessica Hill stated: “did talk all the time.”

In the recorded interview, Jessica Hill stated: “I don't think so.”

In the recorded interview, Jessica Hill stated: “If [Shane] was ever to be shot . . . I wouldn't want you to kill him because if you're killing him, then that's defeating any purpose of anything because then I'm losing a really awesome friend . . . .”

In the recorded interview, Jessica Hill stated she told Blair and others on many occasions that she wished Shane would disappear, describing these statements as “things that you don't really mean but you say.”

Lisa Lewis testified Blair told her: “that they had made somebody disappear.”

Lisa Lewis testified Blair texted and told her: “that they had shot somebody.”

Lisa Lewis testified Blair said: “they did not like the way he was treating his wife and they would be together no matter what.”

Lisa Lewis testified Blair said: “Aron pulled the trigger.”

Court of Appeals ruling included: “constitutes hearsay and is not admissible.”

The court stated Blair’s statements did not indicate Jessica Hill “participated in, encouraged, or knew of the crime.”

Boone County judge’s sentencing described in narrative as imposed the maximum sentence.

Jessica Hill’s attorney Angela Campbell said: “There were three issues and we won one and that sends it back for a new trial,” and: “I don't know what our position will be about seeking further review on the other two issues.”

Jessica Hill was described as stating to investigators: “to be careful what I wish for.”

Jessica Hill told investigators: “I have no idea. It has never crossed my mind.”

Jessica Hill told investigators: “I didn't tell anybody to kill my husband.”

Jessica Hill told investigators: “like a brother” to Shane Hill.

A friend described tension between Shane and Blair: “always . . .