Showdown in the Bedroom

There are only two people who know what happened in that room, that night, and one of them

is deceased. It was November 14th at 2006 that night was probably the hardest night of my life.

“I believe my dad was shot and cold blood.”

It was this complex relationship between husband and wife. There was violence from time to time. It was clearly a dysfunctional relationship at best. That night in the bedroom, Danny was like a lethal weapon, getting ready to come at you. I don't know how to stop him.

My mom is the only person with the gun, and you don't calm somebody down by pulling your gun out of its drawer. Take a look at that room, put yourself in that position. Where was she going to go? He's taller than her.

He outwaves her. She knows precisely what Danny is capable of. She did not completely count him either, and she knew how to push his buttons. My dad's love that woman. I think he was going to come in that night.

“Charlene wouldn't have made two steps to the door.”

She never would have made the door, and he had been on her like that.

And she had been dead, plain and simple. She's beautiful. You want to believe everything she says. She could convince you this guy as purple. I just wanted him to stop, I didn't want to kill him.

Or abuse lonely woman? No. No. Intelligent instigator. That's money hungry?

Yeah. I believe so. It was a difficult case. You're here because you fired a gun. The killed Danny Hill.

A very dramatic ending. And a truffle of surprises. Showdown in the bedroom. Tonight's 48 hours mystery. He was a very calm, loving person.

And he was an awesome dad. That was my best friend. It's just really hard.

“Every day it's a struggle without my dad here.”

More than five years after her father, Danny Hill, was shot to death. Jamie Hill still has questions for the person who pulled the trigger. Her own mother, Charlene Hill. None of it means since it all. Why don't you get a divorce?

Why don't you just do something besides murder? And we live that night. So many times. But when we play this, that night. Do I wish I could change it?

Oh, no. That night, 25-year marriage came to a sudden and violent ending in a showdown in the bedroom. We've built a full-scale replica of that room to try to solve the mystery of how and why Charlene Hill shot her husband Danny. Nothing is what it seemed in this case.

Not the characters, not their motives. We've been following it since it began. The case went to trial not once, but twice. And nobody could ever have expected how it ended. Before she took his life in that room, they built a life together.

I love to Danny.

Danny will always be a part of me.

They raised three children, made millions with their landscaping and storage businesses near Houston, and made plans to retire to their ranch in the Texas Hill country. We were looking at building our house right here. It's rough knowing that this was our dream and he's gone. But there were two sides to Danny Hill.

While Jamie talks about the loving father, Charlene remembers the man who could also suddenly turn violent. We punched me. Punched you. Yeah.

Hard? Oh yeah. Where would he punch you? Well, that time he punched me in the face. And according to Charlene, that wasn't the worst of it.

Early in their marriage, she says Danny discovered she was planning to leave him.

And poured gasoline on me. And stood there with the lighter and told me if I were tried to leave. He killed me. Over the years, Charlene's calls to 911 and trips to the emergency room were well documented.

But she always refused to press charges.

I was afraid of what would happen if I did. But you needed help. Where are they going to do? Arrest him? He's out within a couple of hours. Where do I go? Charlene claims she was never more afraid of her husband than on the night of November 14, 2006.

That Danny came home in a rage and that she had no choice but to shoot him in self-defense. I knew I could not run. And what would he have done if he got you?

“You have no doubt. He would have killed you. You know that?”

According to Charlene, it was a small thing that set Danny off that night. They had recently sold their storage business to Danny's brother Craig. And Danny had been told to remove his belongings from one of the storage units. He was angry. He was frustrated. He was going through all types of different emotions.

Charlene says Danny was so angry. He was threatening to kill not only the new manager of the storage facility, but even members of his own family. She thought she could calm him down by cooking his favorite meal. He loved chicken and duck ones. And you thought that would make a happy?

Oh, yeah. There's no to help him relax. But she says that night, it didn't work. When I came back into the bedroom, his rage centered on me.

“He was angry that I was trying to calm him down.”

I'd seen the look in his eyes before yes, but I had never seen it like it did that night.

So Charlene says she took her gun out of the nightstand and laid it on the bed. I thought the gun would keep him at bay. So I covered between it and did just the opposite. At this point, the two were standing at opposite sides of the bed. But Charlene claims Danny started coming at her.

I know how to stop him. So she picked up the gun and shot her husband three times. After the shooting, Charlene called 911. The paramedics were already working on Danny when Fort Bend County Sheriff's deputy Jose Trevino arrived. How did he look to you?

He was in pain. He was mounen. I didn't know if he was going to make it or not at the time. And I'm standing here by his feet, leaned over and talking to him. Danny, who shot you? Danny, tell me who shot you? And what did he say? He said in my wife. With his dying breath, 49-year-old Danny Hill had identified his wife as his killer.

Charlene was arrested that night and charged with murder. It's taken a little bit of all of our souls and our hearts. While Jamie admits her father was sometimes abusive, she claims her mother was often the instigator. I was there. I lived it. And my mom was the one that would provoke things. You could only push a dog and a corner so much until it bites back.

And that's what she did.

But ultimately, it was something Charlene said shortly after making bail that her children say,

convince them this was not an open and shut case of self-defense. Jeremy is Charlene's first born. She had said that he wasn't coming at her. He didn't put his hands on her. She said that. Yes. Yes. But he was not coming at her.

That he did not put his hands on her. Do you remember what you said to her? No, but I felt sick to my stomach. After that was said, my brother and I knew for sure that this was murder. And Jamie believes she knows the real motive. She wants it all. She wants the money.

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As Charlene Hill got ready for her first trial in September 2009, she faced life in prison for killing her husband. She hired a prominent Houston defense team. A attorneys, George Parnam, and D. McWilliams. They argued this is a clear cut case of self-defense.

Imagine how scary that must have been. When you're actually physically confronted with a huge violent man who is not in his right mind and is threatening to kill everyone you know, including you. But prosecutors, Jill Stotz and Chad Bridges said there was evidence

that contradicted crucial parts of Charlene's story.

So why is this not a textbook case of a wife who feared for her?

“Life and did the only thing she could do?”

She wasn't abused woman at times, but the blistics, the forensics, the physical evidence. So on that day, it wasn't self-defense. And there was some curious activity. The prosecutors wanted to know about involving the couple's money. Lots of it.

About a million dollars that Charlene transferred between accounts about a month before she shot Danny. Did you transfer the million dollars from the business account to an account with just your name on it? No, I did not.

I transferred the million dollars from our corporate account and to a money market account. So if you wanted any of that money, he could have gotten it. 100%. Charlene seemed to have an answer for everything.

But investigators were convinced the crime scene told them the real story. Charlene says she was on this side of the bed,

“and Danny was over there on the other side when she shot him.”

But this is the door to the living room. It was right by Charlene and prosecutors wonder why she didn't just back out of the room and flee. Because of my physical condition, the entry to my leg, I can't run.

Charlene insists she was unable to back out of the room because her leg had been shattered when she and Danny were in a motorcycle accident three years earlier. You've had many steps. And that's what this case is all about.

Did she have to shoot her husband or was there any other option? If I'm Charlene and I'm over here, the door is just right right there. If I've got the gun, why can't I just run away?

Would she make the door? Well, if we're talking about a race to the door, I'm considerably smaller than Danny.

“Charlene is standing there terrified and frozen.”

She's not knowing what on earth to do. So I'm here and I'm trying to get out. And there is no chance Charlene making that door. Much less negotiating the turn and the steps are getting out.

Danny is on her in a split second. Prosecutors believe Charlene had multiple motives for wanting her husband dead. There was the money. The couple was worth several million dollars.

But it turns out Danny had suffered a critical brain injury

in that motorcycle accident. And he was never the same. After the accident, we called him dad number two because he was just what's this. So what's that?

And then she felt like she was having to raise another kid because of his brain injury and my dad was a burden to her. Next witness, Jeremy Hill. At trial, Jeremy took the stand against his own mother.

He admitted that Danny beat him as well as Charlene but said the violence ended after the motorcycle crash. He became a big pussycat, if you will. Watching her first born testifying against her was more than Charlene could bear.

And it got more difficult. Let's talk about acts of violence. As Charlene's attorney confronted Jeremy with some of the Hill family's dirtiest secrets. It was a time when you were in the fifth grade

when your father came into your bedroom beat you so severely for no reason that he knocked you out. He punched me once and knocked me out yesterday. George Parnam believed Jeremy had a hidden motive

for turning against his mother. It's money. Your mother did not have an inquiry

and I owed her that you had gone through a million dollars

Right? Correct.

“A million dollars that Charlene had moved from one account”

to another before the killing

was moved again just after she got arrested. Charlene transferred it to Jeremy for safe keeping. He admitted he withdrew all the money and split it with his siblings to pay off debts. What did that money go to?

They went towards paying off my house. A pinch of coal, Charlene Hill. Charlene decided to take a chance a few murder defendants ever do. She took the stand in her own defense.

And then he was grabbing it by the throne and had me on the ground. She painfully recounted the years of violence. Let's take a moment. Then she told the court about the night she shot her husband.

What'd you do?

I brought the clock out of the dresser

and that lady's on the bed. And I just came back and I told her to do anything. Don't come near me. We're not gonna go there. The daddy said anything to you when he sold the gun a bit.

Enough of me. And then he said, "We're gonna do a shootup. I'm gonna shoot you better shoot me." And then prosecutor Jill Stocks had Charlene in her sights.

It was an unrelenting cross-examination. Is that something that normally would calmed down and showing him that you have a gun? It really wasn't to calmed him down. It was to show that you had the upper hand, right?

No, it was to tell him to back off. Well, telling him to back off is not the same as calming him down. For two days.

“Why would you set a gun where he can easily reach it?”

She would not let up. At that point, could you have picked up that weapon? Even if you're pointing it at him and walked out the door. No, man. Why is that?

Because I believed I was in danger. Danger of what? You have the gun. My husband was a leader weapon without a gun. Charlene claimed that since Danny's brain injury, he was more violent than ever.

And while Jeremy may have described him as a pussycat, Charlene insisted that night, Danny Hill was more like a wild animal. He was coming at me. He was going to kill me.

And unless you've been in that situation, you have no idea it's like a grizzly burden getting ready to attack you. All right. With the testimony over, the drama moved to the jury room,

where 12 men and women began possibly the strangest, most emotional deliberations ever in this courthouse. Through her eyes, I could really of that night. I kind of felt that she was going to die that night.

Silvia La C and Charlene Hill had never met,

“but Silvia quickly became the most important person”

in Charlene's life. She was a juror. Charlene's first murder trial. What was it like in that room? Hostel.

Hostel. The vote was 11 to 1 guilty, with Silvia the lone holdout. She tried to persuade the others that Charlene could not outrun her husband

because of her leg injury. What are you all talking about? How can she retreat? Can't you see Charlene was doing this here? What did they say to you?

I am sick and tired of you. I am sick and tired of you up in here with all these different scenarios. Belle. Belle, if Mary Charles noticed during a break

that Silvia was clearly feeling the pressure. I could tell that she was holding her stomach and she looked nervous. And she was pacing back and forth. She says they're not going to make me change my mind.

They're not going to make me change my mind. The other jurors believed Charlene could have left the room. And no one on the jury would budge. This whole trial, which had taken so long, was, I guess, hanging in the balance,

teetering on the brink of disaster at that point. So, after two days of deliberations,

I'm going to grant the motion

“for Ms. Traum, made by the defense, had declared a missed trial.”

Because we had nowhere else to go. I was shocked. I was devastated. I felt that they didn't hear the story. Charlene Hill was a free woman,

but maybe not for long. A little more than a year later, she's back in Judge Schumick's courtroom. The prosecutors have decided to try her

for the murder of her husband a second time.

I felt like she had a very decent chance of getting a not guilty verdict. Why? She would be more at home on the stand. Second time around.

But prosecutors are taking no chances. They want to ensure that the second jury's focus will be on science. Not sentiment. I hope they put it aside their emotions.

She doesn't get a buy on murder just because she was abused in the past. So, with the help of crime scene investigators and not one but two medical examiners, they will present a case that is more heavily based on forensics.

To them, the science tells the real story. In the end, it's the bullets that mattered. At her first trial, Charlene dramatically described her showdown with Danny. I'm sorry, though. I can't say it.

But my words and he was coming after me. But investigators, Lester Fipps, and Jeremy Goodrich noticed all the bloodstains were on the opposite side of the room from where Charlene was standing. And then they saw this bullet hole in the wall opposite Charlene

and just about one foot off the ground. I mean, I'm no CSI expert, but that would seem to indicate that it was fired from a higher angle.

To the prosecution, this is crucial evidence.

Proving that Danny was already seriously wounded and slumped on the floor when Charlene stood over him, reamed and fired another round striking him for the third time. What does that say? That says that he was no longer a threat.

He was no longer a threat. He was down. He was on the ground. Yes, sir. Did he fall down before he stopped shooting? I don't think so. That's Mr. Hill's spinal cord after I removed it.

At Charlene's second trial in January 2011, medical examiner Sarah Doyle testifies that not only was Danny down, he was paralyzed.

“In your opinion, what caused that injury to Danny Hill's spinal cord?”

The bullet passing through his spine. Would you be able to stand at that point? No. The walk? No.

The third shot makes it murder.

But of course, when Charlene's attorneys examined all the evidence, it told them that Charlene did not mean to kill Danny. If that were the case, why are there still several wild rounds in the gun? If she wanted to finish him off, she sure could have. Danny wouldn't dead when she called man one one.

But the defense also has to explain that bullet hole that's so low on the wall. It could be a miss? We just don't know. Dr. Stephen Pustilnik is the medical examiner in neighboring Galveston County.

He claims the bullet hole in the wall cannot be a miss. He looked at its shape. The bullet hole made in the drywall is oblong. It is not a perfectly round hole. That is a sign of what Forensic scientists call a tumbling bullet.

Pustilnik says that bullet hit the wall sideways after first passing through Danny Hill. And Pustilnik set up a demonstration to prove his theory.

“Forensic for dummies, I mean a tumbling bullet is just that, right?”

A bullet goes in, hits stuff in the body and tumbles and over in. Correct. And it doesn't come out necessarily knows first. Dr. Pustilnik filled a five gallon bucket with internal organs and blood from a pig. This is sort of roughly what's inside a human body.

Correct. And he used the same kind of gun. This is a guac model 19. And ammunition as Charlene Hill.

Look at this bullet hole here.

That is not a perfectly round hole. So the bullet has passed through all those intestinal contents and during its travel has rotated on its way out and made an asymmetric hole in the drywall.

“Is the context of this case, what is that proved to you?”

That shows that that last shot was a shot that was taken while his body was down there under the window, not standing up, not coming at her. But Charlene's attorneys insist that in the end, whether or not the bullet tumble through Danny is not important. What is important is that Charlene believed her life was in jeopardy.

You can shoot a person as many times as it's necessary to stop the threat. If you had the rat to kill somebody, you had the rat to kill him. Dead, dead, dead, dead. But the prosecution is just getting started. It's going to be a tough fight for Charlene Hill and her lawyers.

♪♪

It is the first question most people ask.

Why would Charlene Hill stay in an abusive relationship for almost 30 years? There was a good Danny and there was a back Danny. You know, you gotta remember Danny and I worked together side by side. There were good times, but it was a rollercoaster ride for a long time. Even her closest friends, Jennifer Henshin, Susan Watts, surged for answers.

Those vows said for better and worse, and she meant that she kept them.

“I think they were each other's drug that they couldn't live without the other.”

And didn't want to live without the other. It's a huge dream. And now the most painful details of this baffling and broken relationship

are about to be exposed again in court by Charlene's own lawyers.

That her life was in jeopardy. That she was in danger of serious bodily injury. Not only is she physically punished. She has mentally punished as well. She knows full well that he has absolutely control of her.

We're part of going next week. Witnesses testified about Danny's violent history. He started yelling and screaming and you know, throwing things around so sharp and I hit under a picnic table. I was pointing up the door going, "What are these holes in the door?" And he said, "I shot you missed."

Another family friend, Jeff Douglas, is clearly uncomfortable. As he recounts how Danny dragged to him about raping Charlene. He pushed her down on the bed. What did he tell you? Well, something to the effect that you know, after a viable change, he enjoyed it.

Even Jeremy Hill, please have a seat. While testifying against his own mother once again has to admit that Danny was capable of appalling violence. Your father, somehow, was able to pick your mother up and put her into the passenger seat. Yes, sir. What was he doing?

He was talking to her. But prosecutors think the forensics prove that on the night in question Charlene was the dangerous one in that room. The bullets ran the wrong way for this to be what she said. The bullets run the wrong way for him to be coming at her. Medical examiner, Dr. Sarah Doyle.

The bullet goes through the muscle of his upper right arm and exits his upper right arm. Then re-interests into his armpit. It goes through the right lung, the right diaphragm, the liver. But it's not so much where the bullets ended up that's important to prosecutors. It is where they enter Danny's body on the side of his right arm.

So he would have to be standing facing away from her to get the 90 degrees away. 90 degrees away, yes. This is a bullet that went to that shot is a re-entry. Dr. Stephen Pustilnik has studied the autopsy photos. And he says Danny could not possibly have been coming at Charlene with his arms raised ready to grab her

as she testified. If he was coming at her at the time, where would he have been shot? If he's coming at her, it would be on his front surface. So front of his chest, front of his abdomen.

“Do you remember where he was when you fired each of those three shots?”

No, he was just coming. He had to be facing this way if she was in that position far and there.

Yes or that is the exit. It's the door to the back patio, but Charlene's attorney say Danny was threatening to go out to his truck to get a gun. And suddenly he changed his mind. I'm Charlene, right? Okay, I'm here.

He goes like he's going to go to the door. But rather than go to the door, he makes his move towards her. I think the state just doesn't believe that he actually turned to come at her. He's got wounds on his right side. Those wounds are totally consistent with exactly what we've described here.

Uh-huh. And you think that he got shot on his way while he was turning to come at her. Right.

Now, everyone is ready for Charlene to take the stand for the second time in this courtroom.

I don't remember thinking anything other than I'm going to die. And everyone will be surprised by how this case ends. G'day, I'm Justin Wolfers, host of the Platypus Economics Podcast. If there's one thing I've learned from a career teaching economics,

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In a case full of gambles, Charlene Hills attorneys are taking yet another one. They're having the jury take a field trip to Charlene and Danny's bedroom. Why do you want them so badly to see that room? This whole thing came down to could she have gotten away? It seems to me that the best way for a person to understand that is to actually be in there.

See how it's configured. We took one of those jurors, Judith, who does not want her last name used, into our room.

When you first came into that room, what was your goal?

What did you want to accomplish? Well, I just wanted to kind of get an idea of the size and you know where Charlene was. It's a good size room, but considering the conflict that was going on, it wasn't that big. And that's exactly what the defense wants the jury to bear in mind. Barnum, call you next to us.

Charlene Hill, you're on her. As Charlene takes the stand. First attorney George Parnam again has Charlene recount years of abuse with little left to the imagination. Did any a hill ever hog tie you, Miss Hill? Yes.

Describe hog tie for me? It's where we take my arms and time behind my back and take my legs and tie him and then time my arms to my legs. Charlene has to tell her story about that night to 12 new jurors about Danny's rage and what happened when she took out her gun. He laughed at me and said I'm going to f*ck, excuse my language, I'm going to kill you bitch.

You want to have a shootout? He was just going off saying all kinds of things.

“But Charlene says she can't remember the actual shooting.”

Do you remember how many times you shot? No, I do not. Do you remember where you shot him? Oh, I do not. What did you do next?

I don't know. You don't ever remember having the gun in your hand.

In another brutal cross-examination prosecutor Jill Stotz first confronts Charlene with the physical evidence.

So if Danny turns and leaves the door that's going out to the backyard and starts coming at you on the opposite side of the room, can you explain to me how he didn't fall in the middle of the room or anywhere other than at the wall? I have no idea. When you shot him in the arm was he up against the wall? When you ask me when I shot him and where I can't tell you that, I don't know that.

Over two days. Do you recall pulling the trigger? Do you know where you shot him? Do you know where you were trying to shoot him? The prosecutor pounces on those lapses in Charlene's memory.

“So if you remembered 18 months ago that you aimed for his arm and shot him in the arm, why don't you remember that now when I asked that question?”

I don't remember thinking anything other than I'm going to die. Can you explain to the jury why last time you recalled not only firing the weapon but that you were standing when you did it. And this time you don't recall that at all. No, I can't explain why. That is impossible.

Interclosing argument, the prosecutor accuses Charlene of lying about her memory loss.

She forgot everything that may have made her guilty of murder.

And she only remembered the stuff that would help her out. That's awfully convenient. As the new jury deliberated over new arguments and new witnesses, both sides were worried about a repeat of the old outcome. This time I was really hoping that they would reach a verdict so that we wouldn't have to do this again.

For the third time. For the third time. We worried a lot. We were on our hands. We were afraid of a conviction.

Show me in your mind what you think Danny was doing when she fired out of the firm.

“I think he was heading towards the door and at that point he fell down.”

She should have left the room. I thought, oh, here we go again.

Bail of Mary Charles was worried the jury might be having a tough time reaching a verdict when they were still deliberating at 10 o'clock that first night.

Is it this case a snake bitten? I said, man, I can't believe it. What do you mean snake bitten? I mean, you know, we weren't getting anywhere. And I said, we cannot try this case at third time.

So the next morning as the jury resumed its deliberation, Judge Schumick encouraged the attorneys to try to reach a plea deal. The clock was ticking with a verdict or a hung jury possible at any moment. The attorneys kept going back and forth, back and forth. Hours went by.

About six o'clock that evening, a development. Both sides came in together and said, we have a deal. Now the tough part convincing Charlene to go along and end the fight to clear her name. The deal? No prison time. But she would have to admit that she murdered her husband.

Obviously, it is a gut-wrenching decision for her. If we can reach an agreement, it's guaranteed she walks out of there. And if we don't, it's not. I didn't murder my husband. And to take a plea bargaining saying I did,

to me, it was just very hard.

Finally, Charlene relented.

But right as she was about to sign the papers, there was a knock on the door from inside the jury room. And I got a tap on my shoulder. And they said, Judge, we have a verdict. At that point, Judge Shoemake made a split-second decision.

He could have read the jury's verdict whatever it was. But he decided not to, to let both sides seal the deal.

“What's going on in your mind at this point while you're going through all this?”

I'm wondering if I ever have a case that is normal to the charge of murder. What is your plea? It was a dramatic moment at Charlene shaking her voice barely audible, stood before the judge and pleaded guilty to murder. Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty and for no other reason?

I was pretty much crying the whole time. My attorneys were holding me up. And you understand that you've waived every ride of appeal that you have. And she did it just in the nick of time. After the plea, the bail of man and me, the verdict sheet.

And what did it say? Guilty. All right. Had he gotten the verdict even moments earlier, the judge would have had to sentence Charlene to at least five years in prison.

“How close to Charlene Hill come to going to the penitentiary?”

Probably as close as a space of five seconds. Seriously, five seconds, seriously. And I thought, oh my God, someone upstairs is watching over this woman. But the jurors also felt Charlene had suffered enough. We all agreed that she didn't necessarily need to do jail time, but that wasn't our call.

So even though her plea made their verdict irrelevant, the jurors were satisfied. We were not unhappy that she made that decision. So in a way, this sort of worked out the way you wanted it. It's right. Are you satisfied that justice was done?

I think justice was done. I do. Now with her legal battle behind her, Charlene is trying to build a new life without Danny. I miss him. I miss the good Danny.

And it will be even tougher because her son Jeremy wants nothing to do with her. Do you love her at all? Anymore? There's a love of forgiveness as hard as you can't forget. But Charlene's daughter, Jamie, had decided to forgive her mother after a bitter

If people hold hate in their heart, it'll just sink their life down further.

“We're here now, and that's all that matters, and I'm happy, so happy.”

And I'm happy that we get a second chance together.

I love you. I love you. I love you very much. I love you.

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