Doctors testify to mental state

Web posted February 13, 2000

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By Greg Rickabaugh
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- Jurors deciding the life-or-death fate of David Mark Hill heard the soft-spoken plea of the killer's father Saturday as he told the panel he would like his son to live.

Taking the stand for just five minutes, George Hill answered a few background questions before defense attorney Robert Harte asked whether he wanted his son to live.

The frail, 68-year-old father answered simply ``yes'' before stepping down from the witness stand and moving back to the courtroom bench beside his church bishop.

Defense attorneys were not sure all week whether the elder Mr. Hill would testify. When he finally did, he requested that news media not photograph him. He was not accompanied by Amy Hill, his wife and the defendant's mother.

George Hill's short stint as a defense witness Saturday afternoon came after hours of testimony from more psychiatrists, who took turns picking apart the brain of the defendant and explaining his state of mind in the weeks and months before he killed three people.

Mr. Hill, 39, was convicted Tuesday of barging into the Department of Social Services office in North Augusta on Sept. 16, 1996, and killing three caseworkers -- Michael Gregory, 30, of Belvedere, Josie Curry, 33, and Jimmy Riddle, 52, both of North Augusta. Prosecutors said he planned the shooting spree because he was angry with DSS for taking custody of his quadriplegic daughter and twin sons.

The jury will return Monday morning to decide the case. The judge had planned to wrap up the trial today, but three or four jurors requested a break for religious reasons and ``time to reflect'' before making such a big decision, the jury foreman said.

On Saturday, defense attorneys Mr. Harte, Jeff Bloom and Regina Poteat called several psychiatrists to the stand to testify that Mr. Hill was suffering from three major mental disorders and was not taking his medication the day he committed the triple murder.

``I don't think that he could appreciate that Mr. Riddle, Ms. Curry and Mr. Gregory were looking out for his best interests and the best interests of the children,'' said Dr. Alexander Mortan Jr., a psychiatrist specializing in pharmacy. ``I am certain he was in benzodiazepine withdrawal, and I'm sure that his judgment was impaired because of it.''

Dr. Mortan, who has examined Mr. Hill's medical records, testified that for months the defendant had been using Klonopin, the most potent anti-depressant drug on the market. Then, Mr. Hill stopped taking it and suffered severe withdrawal symptoms, including the misperception of reality.

Under cross-examination by Solicitor Barbara Morgan, Dr. Mortan admitted that he cannot be 100 percent sure when Mr. Hill stopped taking the drug. He is relying on the word of Mr. Hill as to when he stopped taking it.

Dr. Jeffery Black, a former psychiatric student who treated Mr. Hill in the months before the killings, testified that his patient was suffering from three major mental disorders in 1996 -- post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder and major depressive disorder. The doctor called them the ``three biggest stressers,'' which came as a result of several traumatic events in Mr. Hill's life.

The events included two when Mr. Hill was a teen-ager: a near-drowning and his chronic guilt for causing a car accident that killed his sister. Later in life, he suffered trauma from witnessing an explosion at his workplace and by seeing his daughter lose the use of her arms and legs after a car accident.

On July 21, 1996, two months before the DSS shootings, Dr. Black was called to the Hill home, where Mr. Hill had a shotgun underneath his chin and was threatening to kill himself, the doctor testified. The suicide attempt came after several investigations into the Hill home by the DSS office.

``He was shaking, crying a great deal,'' Dr. Black said. ``He said he knew this was stupid and wrong. He really didn't want to hurt anyone, but it seemed to him like it was just happening, one thing after the other and other and other, and he finally put the gun under his chin.''

Dr. Black talked him out of it, and Mr. Hill eventually was taken to the Aurora Pavilion for several days of treatment.

A third psychiatrist, Dr. James Bellard, suggested Mr. Hill had reached a low point in his life in 1996.

``In Mr. Hill's life, everything seemed negative. It was hard for him to see anything positive,'' Dr. Bellard said.

Mr. Hill's disorders likely influenced any decisions he made Sept. 16, he said.

``He had some ability to conform his behavior, but what ability he had was substantially impaired,'' Dr. Bellard said.

Defense attorneys want the jury to understand what Mr. Hill was going through when he killed three people.

To wrap up a case for life imprisonment, the defense counsel showed the jury a 15-minute videotape showing the condition of the Hill home on the day of the shootings. A law enforcement officer, wobbling the camera as he moved, recorded the video just after the killings.

The tape, played without sound, showed a one-story house in Belvedere with clothes, documents and children's toys strewn throughout. The cameraman took the viewer on a room-by-room tour.

In one room, amid medicine bottles and clothes, stood a picture of the Hill's three children. Posted on a board in another room, a handwritten note read, ``Call DSS.''

On Monday, Circuit Judge Marc Westbrook expects the solicitor to put on a brief rebuttal witness before the jury hears closing arguments. A unanimous decision is required by the jury to send Mr. Hill to death row.

Reach Greg Rickabaugh at (803) 279-6895.