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A prosecutor and two defense attorneys agreed today that a messy custody battle was at the heart of a January 2009 incident in which a
91-year-old Dublin woman was brutally strangled to death and her son was wounded by a stun gun.
But they disagreed on who is at fault for the deadly incident.
Prosecutor Casey Bates told jurors in his opening statement in the trial of Rosa Hill, 36, and her mother, 57-year-old Mei Li of Antioch, murdered 91-year-old Selma Hill at her home in the 770 block of Peppertree Road in Dublin on Jan. 7, 2009, in a “cold-blooded and premeditated” fashion.
Bates said Rosa Hill and Li wanted to kill Hill’s husband, Eric Hill, 39, and Selma Hill because Eric Hill had sole legal custody and 85 percent physical custody of the couple’s daughter, who was two years old at the time. He and the daughter were living with Selma Hill.
Bates said Rosa Hill and Li planned the attack at Selma Hill’s home for months, buying a gun, stun guns, a hammer, a sword, a crossbow, an axe, a hacksaw, handcuffs, pepper spray and other weapons.
He said they also did extensive research on the Internet on how to get away with murder and use deadly substances such as arsenic, nerve gas, mustard gas and ammonia.
Bates said Rosa Hill and her mother kept extensive notes on their plans and referred to their plan to take the daughter away from Eric Hill as
“Operation Custody.” One of their notes said Eric and Selma Hill were “troublemakers,” Bates said.
But Rosa Hill’s lawyer, Bonnie Narby, said Rosa Hill was “overwhelmed by stress” because Alameda County Child Protective Services officials disregarded her allegations that Eric Hill was mentally unstable and had been molesting their daughter.
Narby said Rosa Hill “had fears” about her husband and “could no longer take it.”
She said Eric Hill had made several suicide attempts, had been involuntarily hospitalized several times and had heard voices “commanding him to hurt and stab people.”
Li’s attorney, Barbara Thomas, said Selma Hill was already dead by the time Li arrived at Hill’s home.
“This was a murder that occurred before (Li) got there,” Thomas said.
Thomas said Li went to Selma Hill’s home only because her daughter called her from that location and needed help.
Referring to Li, Thomas said, “All she’s done is try to help her daughter to the best of her ability.”
Bates said Selma Hill was beaten, choked and shot with a stun gun before she died. Her body was then stuffed head first into a garbage can that had been placed in a locked storage shed on her property, he said.
Bates said Li tried to strangle Eric Hill but “he fought for his life” and was able to gain control of a baton she was using on him, when he “wildly swung it” and hit her in the head, causing her to bleed.
But Thomas said Li was trying to stop Eric Hill, who weighed 240 pounds, from attacking her daughter, who weighed much less.
Thomas alleged that Eric Hill deliberately struck Li and “cracked her skull” by hitting her so hard that the baton was bent.
Rosa Hill faces a term of 44 years to life in state prison if she’s convicted of all the charges against her and Li faces 38 years to life.
Ping Li, 70, the husband of Mei Li and the father of Rosa Hill, is charged with being an accessory in the case but will be prosecuted separately at a later date.
