Selma Hill Murder Trial: Ex-Husband Testifies About Mental Health History

Eric Hill faced questions from his ex-wife’s attorney Monday after beginning testimony last week against his former spouse, who is accused of murdering his grandmother in the wake of a child custody dispute.

Police say Rosa Hill and her mother, Mei Li, were involved in the death of Selma “Sally” Hill, a 91-year-old woman who was found stuffed into her trash can in her Dublin home in January 2009.

Eric Hill testified last week that he arrived at the Peppertree Road home and was attacked by Rosa Hill and Li, who investigators believe had planned the assault for months in an attempt to reclaim the couple’s daughter.

Today, Rosa Hill’s attorney, Bonnie Narby, focused on Eric Hill’s bouts of mental illness, which she traced back to 2004.  Eric Hill’s psychiatric care began that year after his ex-wife saw him put a knife to his wrist, Narby said. 

Eric Hill was then enrolled into an intensive outpatient program and prescribed anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medications for mental problems. He suffered another mental breakdown, this time at work, in 2005 and was prescribed new medication, Narby said. During much of the questioning, Eric Hill said he remembered the episodes but was unsure of the sequence in which they happened.

Eric and Rosa’s daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 2006. That year, Eric Hill also began having documented troubles at work, Narby said, and was receiving negative evaluations from superiors.

Eric Hill said he defended his substandard performance to supervisors, citing the side effects of his medications.  He was employed at Alameda County Social Services.

In his statement to supervisors, which Narby read aloud in court, Eric Hill said he had “stopped taking many of my medications in order to be clear-headed and alert for work.”

Narby said Eric Hill's stopping of medications gave way to hallucinations.  Upon questioning, Eric Hill recalled specific hallucinations that he reported to his psychiatrist, including a poodle in his kitchen and figures out of the corner of his eyes.  He also reported auditory hallucinations to his wife.

After sending Eric Hill an email documenting her concerns about his mental stability, Rosa Hill started locking her husband out of her bedroom and hiding sharp instruments in the home from him, according to Narby.

Eric Hill said he did not recall being locked out but said he remembered her hiding knives from him and that it displeased him.

Narby said Rosa Hill was also wary about her husband’s relationship with Elizabeth because of several episodes in which she believed he had sexually molested their infant daughter.

Eric Hill took time with much of his testimony, often pausing for seconds before answering that he couldn’t remember specifics or had vague recollections.

Eric Hill said Rosa Hill kept their daughter from him when the couple separated in March 2007 until he pursued custody that May.  The custody-related litigation began in July 2007, when Eric Hill was awarded full custody for a week as the couple both underwent psychiatric evaluations.

The court-mandated evaluations conducted that week found that Eric Hill had “severe impairment of reality-testing,” according to Narby, who said during her opening statements that Rosa Hill’s evaluation found heavy mental stress.

Eric Hill’s complaints against his ex-wife’s child-rearing methods included that Elizabeth was gaining weight because her mother was feeding her too much.

A trial in family court originally set for November 2008 was moved to February 2009.  But before that trial could start, the family was thrust into an entirely different set of court proceedings, when Sally Hill was found dead on Jan. 7, 2009.

During questioning, Eric Hill offered his view of his ex-wife’s relationship with his grandmother.

“She did not like a lot of it,” he said, referring to Sally Hill’s reaction to his custody battle.  He said he did not tell his grandmother about the allegations of sexual molestation but said Rosa had accused him of hurting his daughter,

“I was truthful, just not detailed,” he said.

Narby said that during a walkthrough with police of the Dublin home the day after the murder, Eric Hill told detectives that his grandmother was “mean” to his ex-wife and “often said hurtful things” to her.

 “I did not like the way that Sally treated her,” Eric Hill said.

Also today, Eric Hill answered questions from Li’s attorney, Barbara Thomas.  Eric Hill said Li was “very nice” to him, especially when he and his wife moved into Rosa Hill’s parents' home after their marriage.

Li was a trustful source of child care and was a "helpful" go-between during the custody battle, according to Eric Hill.

“Rosa and I didn’t speak to each other during that time,” he said.  “[Li] was always very helpful because she would talk to me and help me out.  I could talk to her and arrange child care through her.”

Testimony will continue at the Rene C. Davidson courthouse this week in Oakland.