Solicitor seeks murder indictments in DSS caseworker killings

Morgan will ask a grand jury to return murder indictments against North Augusta man

Web posted March 26, 1997

By Kathy Steele
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN - Second Circuit Solicitor Barbara Morgan will ask a grand jury next week to return murder indictments against the North Augusta man accused of killing three Aiken County caseworkers.

No decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty if David Mark Hill is convicted at trial, Ms. Morgan said Tuesday.

``That will be the next step in the process,'' she said.

Mr. Hill is charged with shooting to death Josie Curry, Michael Gregory and Jimmy Riddle on Sept. 16. Police said he was angry that his 4-year-old paraplegic daughter was put in foster care.

According to police reports, Mr. Hill walked into the North Augusta office of the Aiken County Department of Social Services and demanded to be taken to his family's caseworker. He then began firing a semi-automatic gun, police said.

Mr. Hill was found the next day by authorities with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the mouth. He was treated at Medical College of Georgia Hospital and later sent to Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville.

The North Augusta office reopened five weeks after the shootings with revamped security measures including video cameras, silent alarms and a redesigned office layout.

In recent months, DSS has taken a tougher stance on threats made to its caseworkers, filing complaints with local police departments. In Aiken County, Nicole Venable, 25, was sentenced in February to five years probation after a jury found her guilty of threatening a caseworker over the phone.

According to testimony at her trial, Ms. Venable threatened to kill Aiken County social workers because her son was put into foster care.