Jury selection to begin in Hill trial

Prosecutor has said she will seek death penalty if the jury convicts 39-year-old of murder

Web posted October 11, 1999

By Greg Rickabaugh
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- The grilling starts today.

David Mark Hill appears at a pretrial hearing last week in Aiken. Jury selection begins this afternoon in Mr. Hill's capital murder trial in Aiken County General Sessions Court. RON COCKERILLE/STAFF

Circuit Judge Marc Westbrook will welcome more than 100 potential jurors in Aiken County General Sessions Court as jury selection begins this afternoon in the capital murder trial of David Mark Hill.

Solicitor Barbara Morgan and defense counsel Robert Harte and Regina Poteat will have their chance this week to craft a 12-member jury with a few alternates who will be sympathetic to their respective sides.

Attorneys will grill jurors on their background, family life and opinion on crime and punishment, using a set number of peremptory challenges to eliminate those jurors they don't want.

Ms. Morgan wants a jury that will convict Mr. Hill on three counts of murder in the shooting rampage at the Department of Social Services in 1996. If he is convicted, she will ask the panel to put him on death row for the crimes.

Defense attorneys want to force the prosecution to prove their client committed the offenses while making a case that Mr. Hill was mentally ill at the time or suffered from a mental disease that made him unable to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.

Of course, if Judge Westbrook finds that too many potential jurors are knowledgeable about the case or have been tainted by pretrial publicity, he may consider moving the trial to another county or picking a jury somewhere else and busing it here. That could take at least another month to set up.

``It's always a possibility. But the Supreme Court says before we change venue, we have to first attempt to seat a jury,'' Judge Westbrook said. ``Until then, there is no way of knowing. We'll have to see jurors' reactions to the questions.''

It has taken three years to get to this point, and Judge Westbrook expects the trial to last a few weeks. The judge has ordered the jury sequestered, and that is why he intends to work evenings, Saturdays and Sundays.

``When a jury is in a motel and sequestered, you've got to try and work as expediently as you can,'' Judge Westbrook said.

Before the jury pool arrives this afternoon at 2:30, psychiatrists from the state Department of Mental Health will arrive to evaluate Mr. Hill. That will give them a week to prepare for the competency hearing set for Oct. 18, when they will testify about his mental state.

If Mr. Hill is found to be competent, the trial continues. But if Judge Westbrook is convinced by the testimony that Mr. Hill does not understand the charges against him or is unable to assist in his defense, the judge may rule Mr. Hill is incompetent to stand trial, and the trial would be postponed indefinitely.

Mr. Hill, 39, is accused of walking into the North Augusta office of the Department of Social Services on Sept. 16, 1996, and looking for the case worker involved in placing his children in foster care. Police say he shot that case worker, Jimmy Riddle, 52, and two others, Josie Curry, 35, and Michael Gregory, 30.

His formal charges are three counts of murder, kidnapping, assault and battery with intent to kill and possession of a pistol while committing a violent crime.

REACH Greg Rickabaugh at (803) 279-6895 or scbureau@augustachronicle.com.