Dublin Deputy Testifies in Trial for Elderly Woman’s Murder

The first words a sheriff’s deputy said he heard upon entering a Peppertree Road home more than two years ago were so loud that they were audible from downstairs: “Please don’t kill me, I don’t want to die. Please don’t …”

Deputy Daniel Molleson was on the witness stand Tuesday, testifying in the accused of breaking into a Dublin home in January 2009 in the wake of a child-custody dispute.

Police say that Rosa Hill and Mei Li planned the crime for months, chronicled in dozens of to-do lists and handwritten notes, in an attempt to take Rosa’s daughter from husband Eric Hill.  Authorities found his grandmother, Selma Hill, strangled and stuffed into a garbage can.

But before discovering the 91-year-old's body in the home's padlocked shed, police responded to an emergency call that dispatched Molleson to the home on the 7700 block of Peppertree Road. He said he arrived on scene just before 6 p.m. Jan. 7, 2009, and entered the residence with another deputy.

According to Molleson, sounds of a struggle were apparent before he entered the home through a side garage door. Upon entering, Molleson said he heard a male voice from upstairs screaming: “Please don’t kill me, I don’t want to die. Please don’t …”

“It was loud,” Molleson said, describing the voice's tone to Casey Bates, a deputy district attorney. “It sounded frightened.”

Molleson said he and the other deputy went upstairs with their guns drawn. They found Rosa Hill, Li and Eric Hill in an upstairs hallway, with Eric Hill on his knees facing away from the officers. On the floor near the trio was a collapsible baton, according to Molleson.

Molleson said he ordered the trio to show their hands. All three raised their hands, according to Molleson. He added he then holstered his firearm and took out his Taser.

Eric Hill then moved to an open door in the hallway, according to Molleson, who said he then shot the man with his Taser. An initial shock failed to stop Eric Hill's movement, so Molleson said he applied another shock.

from Bates, Rosa Hill and Li had attacked Eric Hill with their own Taser and a collapsible baton and it wasn’t until all three were in custody that authorities searched the premises, discovered Selma Hill’s body and arrested Li and Rosa Hill for her murder.

Molleson testified he could not positively identify Rosa Hill and Li as the other two in the hallway because he was paying attention to Eric Hill while the deputy accompanying him was focused on Rosa Hill and Li.

Other witnesses included Scott Busby, a county detective whose cross-examination by Bonnie Narby, Rosa Hill’s public defender, continued. Busby reviewed a catalog of items that investigators say Rosa Hill and Li purchased to accomplish what the two dubbed “Operation Custody” in handwritten notes.

Recovered items included a samurai sword, crossbow, hatchet, leg irons, drills and other tools, according to Busby. Narby asked Busby if police recovered any items normally used to hide bodies or clean up murder scenes such as plastic sheeting, shovels or pickaxes. Busby said no such items were recovered, but added during further questioning from Bates that the items recovered could be used to cut up a body.

Busby also said none of the items recovered were illegal. He also reviewed several handwritten notes police say belonged to Rosa Hill and Li as they itemized steps to conduct their alleged crime. Busby said the to-do lists included “get passport” and “target practice.” 

Busby focused on a note dated Dec. 9, 2008, during questioning from Narby, who said a litany of other to-do’s also were listed. Busby agreed, saying “it’s a very long list.” Other items included “clean apartment floor,” “repair laptop/desktop” and “get extra income by working OT/PT.”

Also on the stand Tuesday was Kristi Lanzisera, a criminalist with Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, who said she swabbed different parts of the Taser that police believe was used on Selma Hill. Lanzisera said she specifically analyzed DNA on the prongs of the Taser that conducts the electric charge and matched that DNA to the 91-year-old victim who, according to Bates, was shocked several times by the device before she was strangled to death.

Lanzisera said she also analyzed the blunt tip of a collapsible baton, also known as an asp, and matched the DNA on that portion to a mixture of Eric Hill and Mei Li. Eric Hill’s DNA constituted the majority found on the asp’s tip, according to Lanzisera.

The swab of the Taser’s handle, assigned to another criminalist, was contaminated and could not be analyzed, Lanzisera said.

The first witness on the stand Tuesday was Robert Spellacy, a Nevada resident who said he sold an antique .32-caliber revolver to Rosa Hill and Li during a gun show in October 2008. The gun was one of the items recovered from the crime scene.

Spellacy said he sold the gun as a “private sale” at the Reno gun show, a transaction that did not require a Nevada ID from Rosa Hill or Li. Spellacy also said he could not fully identify either in a photo array that police presented him in February 2009, adding that he could only remember that the women had “Oriental features”and were “petite.” He also said during a preliminary hearing in October 2009 that he could not identify the duo with no doubt. 

Spellacy said Tuesday that he could better identify the women as the ones who purchased his gun because they looked more like they did at the gun show.

“They have makeup and look nice,” he said. “Before, their hair was frizzed out, they were in jump suits and looking haggard.”

Spellacy said he could remember specifics about the gun sale itself, aside from the purchasers, because the firearm was a “one-of-a-kind” 107-year-old revolver.  He said he initially refused Rosa Hill and Li’s offer of $100 after they tried to barter the price down. They eventually bought the gun for his price of $200.