 Suspect in Oildale man's death faces June trial
A Kern County Grand Jury Indictment sent Steven Leon Hill, 24, directly to Superior Court for arraignment and plea Tuesday on charges of murder and escape, bypassing preliminary hearing In Bakersfield Municipal Court.
Hill, represented by assistant public defender John Thomas, entered pleas of Innocent to both counts and denied being armed or using a dangerous weapon In either of the alleged felonies. Pretrial hearing was set for May 29 and jury trial for June 10.
The suspect is charged with the March 13 gunshot death of Marshall Othal Collins, 50, 231 Woodrow Avenue, Oildale, and a subsequent escape from custody of a deputy sheriff while undergoing treatment at Kern General Hospital.
The body of Collins, shot twice in the back of the head with a third bullet entering his ear, was found Inside his doorway the morning of March 13 after members of a religious group, making house-to-house calls, reported blood seeping under the front door onto the porch.
Sheriff's found more than $20,000 in cash In boxes taped under a chair, and thousands of amphetamine pills hidden In the house.
Hill was arrested at his home at 3101 Sterling Road March 21 and charged with the murder. A .22 caliber automatic found In his home Is believed to have been the type of weapon used in the slaying and ballistics tests were made of the gun, three .22 caliber cartridge casings found at the murder scene and the recovered bullets. Results of the tests will be revealed at the trial. The escape count was added after Hill, taken to Kern General Hospital from the county jail for treatment of diabetes March 23, broke a restraining chain. While deputy Mel McClanahan guarded his prisoner from the corridor, Hill, with shackles on his hands and ankles, climbed out a window, dropped seven feet to a ledge, then to a lower roof and climbed to the hospital grounds.
The accused man made his way to an apartment two blocks away where he entered, Is alleged to have armed himself with a carving knife and threatened several occupants.
Grand jury witnesses were pathologist D. F. Ambrosecchla, M.D.; sheriff's Investigators Bert Pumphrey and John Howard; Carla Hamm, Richard and Robert Long, Jerry Chapman, Don G. Howard. Morton Frey, deputy McClanahan and L. W. Codgen.
[The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, CA, 10 Apr 1974, Wed, Page 10] |
Pill hoard discovered
in slain man's home Slayer of pill dealer gets Chino Steven Leon Hill, 25, won't go to trial Monday, as scheduled, for the fatal shooting of suspected narcotics dealer Marshall O. Collins, 50, in the latter's Oildale home last March 13.
Hill pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder in the second degree and is on his way to Chino state prison to begin a term of from 10 years to life. The commitment was imposed by Superior Court Judge J. Kelly Steele when Hill, represented by attorney James Lanier, waived time for sentencing.
A second count of escaping from custody while being treated for a diabetic condition in Kern General Hospital was dismissed by the court.
The discovery of the murder was as dramatic as any conceived by a writer of mystery fiction. Three women, canvassing the neighborhood for a church organization, saw what appeared to be blood seeping from under the front door of 213 Woodrow Avenue.
Sheriff's deputies found the body of
see Slayer—page 14 |
Slayer
from page 13 Collins just inside the doorway, three bullets in his skull.
A search of the home, where Collins lived alone, revealed $21,000 in cash in two boxes strapped to the underside of a living room chair. Elsewhere in the
house, deputies found 400,000 pills, including 75,000 amphetamines in plastic bags, stuffed in a bedroom cooler duct.
Collins' car was missing and, when found later that day in East Bakersfield, a' search of the trunk turned up another 6,000 white tablets in a man's boot.
Hill was arrested the following week in his home at 3101 Sterling Road and a .22 caliber automatic seized as the possible murder weapon.
Following his interview with sheriff's detective Bert Pumphrey at the county jail, Hill was indicted by the grand jury. According to Pumphrey's testimony, Hill said he was invited to the Collins' home to assist in the disposal of a half-pound of heroin and share in the profits.
He was admitted to the Woodrow Avenue house by a man he only knew as "Bozo" and Collins arrived a short time later. Hill said he decided against the deal and Collins pulled a gun on him. Drawing 'his own weapon — Hill said he always carried a gun when dealing with Collins — he admitted to Pumphrey
he fired three times and saw his host fall to the floor near the front entrance.
"Bozo" was still in the living room when Hill took Collins' automobile keys and drove away, according to the transcript.
The escape from hospital occurred March 23 when Hill broke a restraining chain, meant to confine him to his third- floor room. He climbed out a window and, despite shackles on his wrists and ankles, dropped seven feet to a ledge, then jumped to a lower roof and down to the hospital grounds.
He was captured an hour later in an apartment two blocks away where he had threatened the occupant and her four guests.
Assistant district attorney Richard Bradshaw made the motion for dismissal of the escape charge. [The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, CA, 05 Dec 1974, Thu, Pages
13 & 14] |
