Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline Extra 20191007 : vimarsana.c

And who . Was it her boyfriend . They had fought before. Did you verbally abuse her . Yes. Did you physically abuse her . Yes. Or was it another man in her life . They had been together the night she died. Did you have sex with her . More than 13 years would go by as hannahs family fought for justice. Two possible suspects. Did you kill hannah hill . Absolutely not. Did your kid kill hannah hill . No. Two trials. I was a wreck. It was just very intense. Would there ever be justice for hannah hill . The truth always comes out. Im lester holt, and this is dateline. Heres Dennis Murphy with our story. 18yearold hannah hill may have been live in her parents basement but she was about to move up in the world. She had just bought her own car and was set to start a new job. Then she van i objeyou shalled. Leaving friends and family reeling. Why did hannah dpo out so late the night before her big day and where had she gone . Heres Dennis Murphy she was a girl who made big. Entrances. She could walk in the room and light up the place. She would make the whole room smile. She was always happy, just wanted to have fun. But it was her exit, her sudden disappearance, poof, gone from her house just like that, that enshrouded young hannah hill in mystery. Ms. Hill was last seen last wednesday. Were asking anyone with any Information Contact the Police Department detective bureau. She was 18 years old, just days from turning 19, and seemed to be in for the night. A former homecoming queen in her pjs phoning a few friends from her basement bedroom at her mom and dads in akron, ohio. Its too late now, but you wish she could answer just one question. Why did you leave the house so sudden that night . Her brother justin doesnt know. She got dressed and said, im going out for a little while. Ill be right back. Love you. Never came back . Never saw her again. The next night was going to be a red letter day for hannah. She would drive her geo prism to her new job, the company that makes atms. Her boyfriend expected her to swing by his place in the morning to pick him up. He says she was a noshow. I remember waking up with this eerie gut feeling something wasnt right. I paged her, no answer. She always called me back. Always. The kids relied on pagers back then. Cell phones and text messaging were off in the future for hannahs circle of friends. Her mom, kim, was a homemaker, and dad elza, was eking out a living as a boilermaker. She was a lovely, bubbly kid. She loved everybody. She liked the spice girls, and signed her letters with tiny pink hearts. A nice kid. These friends of hannah thought so. She was a very easygoing person. Someone you could be friends with very easily. She was a great friend. A great girl. Tara ferguson chls her best friend forever. Shes so fun and silly and funny. Theres no doubt she was a very pretty young girl. Yes. She was a hopeless romantic, and she was bound trying to find that prince charming. Now, not every teenage girl has the same definition of prince charming. Hannahs boyfriend, brad, for instance, was a High School Dropout with more than a few rough edges. But by all accounts, hannah was smitten. Definitely her one true love. And brad became entranced by the girl with the brown eyes. We used to get compliments. People would say you look so cute together. But by spring of 1979, hannahs friends and family worried that she was growing distant. They feared that brad was tugging her into a world where she didnt belong. She didnt have her radar up . No. And thats where we differed. She trusted everyone. Hannah disappeared. But where . Friends and family were frantic. Brad and i were calling each other back and forth. Im combing the hills. Im paging her. Shes just not calling. That wasnt like her. Were freaking out now. So we make out thousands of flyers and were passing them out. Have you seen my sister . Has anyone seen my sister . And youre hearing no, no, no, no. Nothing. Brad, the boyfriend, took it a step further. He went to the Police Station to confront the cops. My girlfriend was missing. It seemed to be too long. By tuesday she was missing more than a week. The police finally turned to the media. An 18yearold girl has vanished, and tonight police are asking for your help. When it came across the cb that she was missing, it got really real. The very next morning, a breakthrough. News that police had located hannahs car. It was parked on a quiet deadend street called cain road. Detectives popped the trunk. It was worse than he had expected. Youve seen a lot of stuff in a lot of years. How does this fit in the awful things that cops encounter . Its sickening. Its something you cant unsee. You will see that for the rest of your life. The body of hannah hill had been found naked from the waist down, posed, her shirt pulled up. At approximately 7 30 this morning, the auto belonging to missing person hannah hill was found on the side of the road. Pictures of her car made the evening news. Devastated. How could this happen . I just totally blacked out. Every emotion hit me at once. What had happened to hannah . And why . Police quickly focused on one man, hannahs boyfriend brad. Coming up a drug dealer and he liked to chase other girls. When the night hannah hill disappeared, continues. T hannah disappeared, continues the o. Is more horsepower. Horsepower. engines rev with dodge power dollars buy any challenger, charger, or durango and get ten bucks cash allowance for every one horsepower. I have moderate to severe pnow, theres skyrizi. Things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free to bare my skin yeah thats all me. Nothing and me go hand in hand nothing on my skin thats my new plan. Nothing is everything. Keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90 clearer skin at 4 months. Of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. And skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. I see nothing in a different way and its my moment so i just gotta say nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. Nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. Seeing what people left behind in the attic. Well, saving on Homeowners Insurance with geicos help was pretty fun too. Ahhhh, its a tiny dancer. They left a ton of stuff up here. Welp, enjoy your house. Nope. No thank you. Geico could help you save on homeowners and renters insurance. Hannah hill was buried in a family plot in kentucky the day after what would have been her 19th birthday. For her friends in akron, the place where her car had been found became a place to honor her brief life. We put ribbons around the tree in remembrance. For the detective, the heat was on to find her killer. The akron Police Department was already facing intense scrutiny for taking a full week to find hannahs car. There it had sat, abandoned in the night on cain road, where just hours after hannah had disappeared, residents were calling police to come take a look. At least five neighbors called police and said, we have a car in our neighborhood thats totally unexplained, and you need to come out here. Ed meyer is a reporter for the akron beacon journal. He says the neighbors saw car keys on the dashboard and hannahs name written in two places. In a black eye for the department that lingers to this day, police came and ticketed the car but failed to make the connection. Major, how could this car have sat there since wednesday and not be connected with ms. Hill . Well, i think thats entirely possible for a car to be parked for many days anywhere in the city. Did somebody drop the ball here, captain . Again, like i say, thats under investigation. Was the investigation compromised horribly because of that delay . The condition of the body, the forensic results . Very possible. It gave time for whoever did this to cover his tracks. Who did do it . In the week after hannah had vanished, all the while her body in the trunk of her car undetected, the police were trying to make sense of her boyfriend, brad oborn. When detectives checked him out with hannahs family, they got an earful. Hannahs family wasnt a fan of her boyfriend. No, they didnt like him. And her father made no bones about it. I tried to put mr. Oborn out of her life. But when kids know you dont like something, the farther they get from you. I probably told her she was better than that and she could do better and he wasnt good for her. S. Hes got physical injuries, hes coming on like a house afire. Right. Either he was completely innocent and concerned about his girlfriend and really loved her, or he had done something and was going to use us as a tool. It could have fallen either way. Right. Right. The detective said brad was visibly upset and told him he had been a bad boyfriend. Jealous, controlling. We found out that he was a drug dealer and that he liked to chase other girls. You know, it takes you pretty closely into means mode of opportunity country. You would think. Hughes had tough questions for boyfriend brad. Take off your shirt. We need to get all your photos. We want full fingerprints and palm prints. Is he say, slow down. I need to talk tie lawyer here. No. Never once said anything about an attorney, his rights. Just, find my girlfriend. Whatever you need, find my girlfriend. Then came the awful day they discovered hannahs body. Now were hammering him. Were peppering him, if not you, who, basically. You think hes good for this crime. Not for sure, but i want more information. Give me something to go on. To detectives, brad was a puzzle. Angry and a brace abrasive on one hand, yet seemingly concerned about hannah on the other. Questions still swirled around brad in the hours after hannahs body was discovered. But now the case was about to spin off in a whole new direction. Investigators had obtained hannahs phone logs and learned she had made four calls on her last night. One to a girlfriend, two to brad and another to a boy named denny ross. Denny ross. Does it mean anything to anybody . It doesnt mean anything to me. The detectives learn that this denny ross lived in a threebedroom apartment next to a porn shop. They drove over and knocked on the door. Denny ross answers the door. Sees got a phone in his hand, and i say, hey, you know, detective hughes, id like to talk to you about this, and he says, well, ive got my attorney on the phone. An attorney . Yes. I said, wow, thats a little different. Coming up, there was an even more surprising admission from denny ross still to come about a visit from hannah the very night she died. But did that lead to murder . When dateline continues. Inues. engines rev with dodge power dollars buy any challenger, charger, or durango and get ten bucks cash allowance for every one horsepower. At outback, steak oh no, its gone. Ck. Phew, its back with lobster mac cheese. Its gone again. Oh, its back with shrimp now steak lobster starting at only 15. 99. Hurry in before these three are gone again. Outback steakhouse. Itheres my career. s more to me than hiv. My cause. And creating my dream home. Im a work in progress. So much goes into who i am. Hiv medicine is one part of it. Prescription dovato is for adults who are starting hiv1 treatment and who arent resistant to either of the medicines dolutegravir or lamivudine. Dovato has 2 medicines in 1 pill to help you reach and then stay undetectable. 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Your doctor should do a pregnancy test before starting dovato. Use effective Birth Control while taking dovato. The most common side effects are headache, diarrhea, nausea, trouble sleeping, and tiredness. So much goes into who i am and hope to be. Ask your doctor if starting hiv treatment with dovato is right for you. There areand the best. S. Which egg tastes more farmfresh and delicious . Only egglands best. With more vitamins d and e and 25 less saturated fat . Only egglands best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. The o. Is more horsepower. Horsepower. engines rev with dodge power dollars buy any challenger, charger, or durango and get ten bucks cash allowance for every one horsepower. He was a drug dealer with a jealous streak and cooperating with police after his girlfriend hannah hill was found murdered. Then another name turned us in hannahs phone records. When dcs showed up at dennys apartment he surprised them with an admission and they got a second surprise. A crucial clue that practically fell into their laps. Once again, heres Dennis Murphy. Investigators looking into the murder of hannah hill had followed her phone logs to the doorstep of 20yearold denny ross. Denny, it turned out, was a friend of hannahs boyfriend brad oborn. The kids knew him as a funhouse and a crash pad. Were you surprised hannah was hanging with that crowd . No. I mean, we hung out with people that didnt do some great stuff, but i guess we just kind of thought not that it was okay, but we werent doing it, so i guess we were pretty naive, too. Denny was days into probation on a drug charge and asked to have his lawyer present when detectives arrived for a conversation. Once the lawyer showed up, detectives took out a tape recorder and began an interview. Denny told the detective he stayed in the night hannah disappeared, but then volunteered an astonishing bit of information. Was there anybody here at the house with you . Hannah slept over. Hannah slept over wednesday evening . That makes him, in police jargon, the last known person to have seen her alive. Absolutely. Yes. Her and i were having a conversation, and then, you know, one thing led to another. Did you have sex with hannah . No, i did not. Denny offered up a tip for the cops. Take a look at hannahs boyfriend, brad oborn. Maybe he heard she was seeing somebody else and there were many occasions that he would basically have hannah under his control. She could not go my where. But denny, not brad, was suddenly the person cops wanted to know a lot more about. At 3 00 a. M. , they returned to dennys in force with a search warrant. The officers charging up these exterior stairs said they heard a thud. It wasnt long before one of them found a garbage bag beneath dennys window. In it . Hannahs missing clothing. Is that case closed . Its not case closed, but its a big factor. Ive always called that bag of evidence the key factor in this whole case. The magic bag. Critics of the police work in the case, like local journalist ed meyer, were skeptical. We didnt buy it. Why would he keep a potential bag of evidence that could hang him inside his apartment for a full week . Denny insisted he did not toss the bag out the window. His fingerprints werent found on it and it didnt match any of the garbage bags he had at home. The officers didnt check the temperature of the bag and couldnt say if it had been outside for minutes or for days. Still, the next day denny was charged with hannahs rain and murder. Breaking news at this hour, an arrest has been made in the murder of 18yearold hannah hill. The arrest of goodtime denny was incomprehensible to hannahs friends. I just cant see why someone we knew would want to hurt her. Dennys father, alan ross, said he was stunned, too. You tell me who your boy is. Who is denny ross . A young kid who got himself in a situation by telling the truth. The father says denny was an average, carefree kid, excited about a new job in internet marketing, not a killer. Personality, demeanor. If he walked in the door, who would we meet . You would meet a person who doesnt stop smiling. It doesnt matter who you are, you would feel at home around him because hes got that personality. The medical examiner ruled hannahs death a homicide by asphyxiation, saying she was strangled to death. But little else was clear. For instance, they found semen inside the body during the autopsy, but said it wasnt worth anything because it had degraded in the week she was in the car. Police never checked brad oborns alibi the night she disappeared, never checked paper records, and never checked the carpet inside dennys apartment. They can spray a chemical on this alleged evidence and it can be tested. That was never done. Visible blood spots were found on dennys apartment walls, but in the percent sent out for testing, none came back for hannah. No dna, no blood. You theorize she was killed there, but yet theres no trace of her. Yep. Nor was there a trace of denny in or around hannahs car. Despite the ambiguous evidence, in october 2000, 20yearold denny ross stood trial for the rape and murder of hannah hill. He pleaded not guilty and faced the Death Penalty if convicted. He beat her into submission so he could rape her. Two young prosecutors argued their theory of the case, that inside that apartment denny had raped and killed hannah. They faced off with what the papers were calling a milliondollar defense dream team hired by dennys father. The lead attorney was david chesnau from las vegas. The girls mother was called to the stand but not videoed. Those were her favorite pants. It all came down to the contents of the trash bag found beneath the window. Of all the tests run on the clothing spotted with blood, only one came back to denny, a small semen stain on the girls underwear. Hardly proof of a crime, said dennys lawyer. Theyre kids. Theyre fooling around. That doesnt mean he raped her. The case went to the jury. And in the midst of deliberations came a stunning turn. The judge, quite unexpectedly, walked into the jury room and declared a mistrial. She said she took that drastic measure because she was getting a report that one of the jurors was talking about a Lie Detector Test not in evidence, a Lie Detector Test brad oborn, hannahs boyfriend, had taken and passed. That, the judge said, was jury misconduct. The court has found that the jury is unable to fulfill the obligations required by law. The Prosecution Team was stunned. It was not a good day. Nor was it a good day for the defense. Everybody was brokenhearted, including denny. Dennys team was even more brokenhearted to learn the jury had already reached a decision on the major counts. Dateline talked to four jurors after the trial and they said they had sealed and delivered all the charges except the lesser charge. I voted not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Denny had come oh, so close to being acquitted of hannahs murder. Because the jury voted in his favor, the lawyers went back to the courts and contested his being tried again because of double jeopardy. How does one get tried again for something he was found not guilty of . He was in jail for another year while they decided what to do with him. He was released a year later. But dennys freedom would be shortlived. Youll hear more about that later. For hannahs friends and family, the shock of her violent death, followed by an inconclusive trial, took its toll. People still wondered if brad oborn had committed the murder. He did time for drugs and even tried to rob a bank. Perhaps the hardest hit of all was hannahs mother, kim. It ripped our family apart. About six years ago, a figure of an angel appeared in a tree near where her car was found. A small shrine to her memory. For hannahs friend tara, it wasnt that she stopped thinking about her sweet friend but found she couldnt talk about it. Emotions all bottled up. Hannah frozen forever at 18. So you went on with your life and you had babies. Yes. She never got to do that, did she . No. The case, meanwhile, was mostly in the deep freeze, making a glacial procession through the courts. Seasons passed with no resolution. But that was about to change in startling fashion. Coming up, a second trial, but at times it was hard to know exactly who was the defendant . Was it denny ross . He was choking me from behind and just squeezing. Or hannahs boyfriend . Did you blame yourself for hannahs murder . Yes. When the night hannah hill disappeared, continues. E night disappeared, continues for all out confidence. Depend® silhouette™ briefs feature maximum absorbency, beautiful colors and an improved fit for a sleek design and personal style. Lifes better when youre in it. Be there with depend®. 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A key witness in the murder trial of a White Dallas Police officer convicted of kill canning her black neighbor has been shot and killed himself. Joshua brown was found with multiple gunshot wounds. Police are investigating. Now back to dateline. Welcome back to dateline ext extra. Denny rosss murder trial ended with a stung twist. Just as the jury was about to acquit denny on the most serious charge, the judge declared a mistrial. Denny was released on bond but he was not off the hook yet. Prosecutors would get another chance to prove he killed 18yearold hannah hill. This time they would be armed with crucial new evidence and a bomb shell witness. Here again is Dennis Murphy. The trial of denny ross for rape and murder had collapsed. Years passed with the akron Police Department getting kicked in the teeth for losing the conviction with what so many people called Sloppy Police work. People remembered the case. It went down as a police fumble. Thats probably what most people remember the most, but defending ourselves was not what we were concerned with. Solving the case is what we were concerned with. With police and detectives did was work on the case. The case went down in the state of appeals, federal and the Ohio Supreme Court. Finally the Ohio Supreme Court overturned Lower Court Decisions and ruled that denny ross could be retried for hannahs murder. So this past august, 13 years after hannahs death, the second trial began. Hannahs mother was dreading it, said best friend tara. Kim said, i have to be here every day. And i know that was probably hard for her. Thats just what she felt she had to do. The evidence will show that on that fateful evening of may 19, 1999 prosecutors anna feralia, matt meyer and bradley rotigam laid out their theory of the crime, that hannah hill was lured to dennys bachelor pad in what would be a fateful encounter. Nearly 70 witnesses were called, some of them testifying off camera to things denny had told them over the years about hannahs death. Denny had made a comment to me that he was going to [ bleep ] hannah. He said, we were all having sex, and i was having sex with this girl and ended up choking her excuse my language she died. This woman was a stripper back then and a regular at dennys place. For 12 years, she denied being there the night hannah died. But just months before the second trial, she changed her story, saying now she was there that night and hadnt spoken up earlier because she had been afraid. While you were there, what did you observe, what did you hear, what did you see . Denny and hannah were in the bedroom. Did you know what was going on in that bedroom . I had kind of a good idea. I knew they were [ bleep ] around, and when i heard her make weird sounds, i just said [ bleep ] i dont want to be around a crime scene and i left. But if they told you the sun comes up in the east, you get a second opinion. 10, 15 years later, i think you look at somebody for who they are when they come before you. The jury can believe some, all or none of what these people testified to. And then there were expert witnesses, like this pathologist who said that dna testing had advanced so much in the years since hannahs death that now they could detect dennys dna in blood droplets in hannahs pants discarded in that trash bag. And even on the tshirt on hannahs body inside the car. One of the cuttings from inside the pockets is consistent with denny ross. The new evidence his blood on the victims clothing seemed to belie his testimony of two teenagers making out, kissing and stuff. There is usually no blood unless it is a violent exchange. One of the prosecutors witnesses was this one, who said she first met denny in a bar in 2005, five years after hannahs death. Denny was out on bond at the time. She said she invited him back to her place where she says he violently attacked her. How were his hands fixated on your neck . From behind. He was choking me from behind and just squeezing until i couldnt breathe. I couldnt breathe at all. I know i passed out a few times. And what are you doing at this point . Pretending im dead hoping he cant see me breathe. Choked during sex, battered and left for dead. The prosecutions implication was clear. Is this what happened to hannah hill years before . People develop patterns of behavior. Its what we do. We form habits, and killers are no different. The prosecutors knew dennys lawyers would offer the jury an alternative killer in this trial. Who would that be . Why, brad oborn, the boyfriend. The prosecutors put brad on the stand. It was a risky strategy. I was a heroin addict for quite some time. The story brad told of his relationship with this nice girl hannah was for sure a warts and all presentation. I was not a good boyfriend. Can you explain to us what not a good boyfriend means . I was abusive. I hit i abused her. Did you verbally abuse her . Yes. Did you physically abuse her . Judge you need to answer out loud, please. Yes. Brad testified that just days before hannah disappeared, they had had a big fight about him cheating on her and said thats when she scratched him. Does that pictures fairly and accurately represent the scratches that are on your arms . Yes. Most painful, he said, was the fact that he had introduced hannah to denny in the first place. So but for you, hannah hill would never have met denny ross. Is that what youre saying, mr. Oborn . Yeah. Did you blame yourself for hannahs murder . Yes. Do you still blame yourself for hannahs murder . Yes. Did you kill hannah hill . Absolutely not. The prosecutors had had their chance to show brad as someone clearly not the killer. But now Defense Attorneys would have their crack at him. An all or nothing crossexamination. Coming up, did brad have a motive for killing hannah . Maybe something he had read in her secret diary. She wrote that she had gone to dennys. Did you read that when you read her diary . When dateline continues. Your home at wayfair, you get more than Free Shipping. You get everything you need for your home at a great price, the way it works best for you, ill take that. Wait honey, no. When you want it. You get a delivery experience you can always count on. You get your perfect find at a price to match, on your own schedule. You get fast and Free Shipping on the things that make your home feel like you. Thats what you get when youve got wayfair. So shop now we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. Even a ernie lost rubber duckie . burke you mean this one . ernie rubber duckie cookie what about a broken cookie jar . burke again, cookie . cookie yeah. Me bad. grover yoooooow oh what about monsters having accidents . I am okay by the way burke depends. Did you cause the accident, grover . grover cause an accident . Maybe. bert how do you know all this stuff . burke just comes with experience. all muppets yup. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum hi. Maria ramirez mom maria Maria Ramirez. Mcdonalds is committing 150 Million Dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs. Prof Maria Ramirez mom and dad Maria Ramirez to help more employees achieve their dreams. Enterprise car sales and youll take any tradein . Rom amirez thats right great here you go. Well, it does need to be a vehicle. But i need this out of my house. vo with fair, Transparent Value for every tradein. Enterprise makes it easy. At denny rosss second murder trial, prosecutors presented new evidence placing his blood on hannah hills clothes. Then in a risky move they put hannahs boyfriend on the stand. Brad told jurors he blamed himself for hannahs death but swore he did not kill her. Now, it was the defenses turn. They were hoping to convince the jury that brad was lying and the investigation had been hopelessly botched. Here again is Dennis Murphy. Through 13 years of hearings, appeals and trials, denny ross had one loyal person in his corner. His father allen. Did your kid kill hannah hill . No. In a moment of rough sex that went bad . Oh, my god, shes dead. Put the body in the car. Ditch the car. Walk home. And then make yourself a suspect by telling the police she was there . No. No. My son didnt do this. Alan sees hannah showing up at dennys apartment that night looking for a shoulder to cry on, the teenager upset that her boyfriend brad, the guy she recently scratched up, had cheated on her. The father said the night unfolded just as denny had told the cops. They fooled around a little, kissed and stuff, and hannah left a few hours later. Had someone been waiting below for her to leave the notorious party house . So denny ross was framed by the true killer, is what youre saying . Well, thats pretty obvious. That was the theory Defense Attorneys roger sinnenberg, Larry Whitney and Donna Coletta took to court. Preparing for dennys trial number two was a daunting task. It turned out to be a 13year investigation, so there was an awful lot of data. They insist denny was innocent. Following the fallout by the akron p. D. And the failure to find hannahs car. Once they dpound the bag outside the window, the case turned from an investigation in the death of hannah hill into an investigation of denny ross. Dennys lawyers told the jurors about altogether things police had failed to do, like check hannahs pager records or do a luminol check of dennys place. They questioned how denny could kill hannah in his apartment and left no trace of the murder . No blood, no excrement, nothing that belonged to hannah hill, and yet thats where they say she was murdered. As for the socalled new blood evidence, dennys attorneys told jurors those spots were so tiny, they didnt prove anything. And also challenged the notion that bleeding necessarily proved a violent encounter. We all get paper cuts, dont we . Correct. We get mosquito bites, dont we . Yes. The defense team challenged the credibility of prosecution witnesses in dennys circle back when. For instance, the former stripper who, 12 years along, had changed her story now testifying she heard denny hurting hannah the night she died. The defense team got her to admit she had smoked a lot of pot that night and had a habit of lying, even lying in a formal pretrial interview with dennys lawyer. So you decided it was better to lie to me. Correct . Yeah. It was in your best interest to lie to me. Correct . Yes. And when it came to this woman who had electrified the court by saying denny had attacked and choked her, Defense Attorneys had lost the pretrial battle to keep her off the stand. They insisted that no matter what she had to say, she couldnt tell the jurors anything about what had happened to hannah. Do you know where hannah hill was between may 19, 1999 at 9 00 p. M. To may 20, 1999 at 2 00 a. M. . Absolutely not. Thank you. I have no further questions. Defense attorneys said to focus on those other witnesses was the prosecutors attempt to shift attention away from the true killer. The person who we still, to this day, believed killed hannah is her boyfriend. Brad oborns alibi as to where she was that night was he was at home watching television with his roommates, and they never interviewed the roommates. Now dennys attorneys would have the shot at one man that could create reasonable doubt in their case brad oborn. They began by attacking his depiction of himself as a bad boyfriend. You were a bad boyfriend but you were also abusive. Correct. You hit this young girl. No, i didnt. You slapped her. No, i didnt. You kicked her. Yes, i did. Dennys lawyers tried to trip brad up on dates and times. You told us earlier today i just want to get this straight youre not trying to get it straight, youre trying to confuse me. But did brad have a motive for killing hannah . For an answer to that question, dennys attorneys would turn to hannahs diaries. Reporter ed meyer. Page after page of entries in her own handwriting. You could argue she was fed up with brad oborn and was reaching out on the very night she disappeared. Thats going to be something for a jury to think about. It would be if i were sitting on a panel. The diary entries. Speaking from her grave, hannahs own words telling jurors who she was thinking of denny. Here on november 11, again on december 2nd, and yet again on december 16th. In hannahs handwriting. Denny. Whats more, the defense got brad to admit he had read her diary cataloging the entrants of denny. I recognize that i read the book. You recognized that she had gone to dennys. Did you read that when you read the book . I dont remember. Was jealousy the motive . You were concerned denny would take her away . Yes. You were concerned that any man would take her away . Correct. It couldnt possibly lead tie conviction. Inconclusive dna, a long string of sketchy witnesses, and most of all, an angry, abusive, jealous boyfriend. In your deliberations, ask yourself, against who is the evidence stronger . And if there is any kind of evidence against brad oborn, weve got reasonable doubt, then. Had the defense made a persuasive case . For hannahs family and friends, persuasive case . For hannahs family and friends, there was now more waiting, and just one hope justice for hannah. The truth always comes out no matter what it is. Coming up, the verdict in the second trial of denny ross. All rise, please. We have two families out there. We had to take our time and make that right decision. When the night hannah hill disappeared continues. 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At denny rosss second murder trial, the prosecution presented new dna evidence and testimony from a woman who claimed denny had attacked and joked her years after hannah hills murder. The defense said hannahs boyfriend, not denny, was the one who should have been on trial. Hannahs family waited 13 years for justice, and their wait was almost over. Here with the conclusion of our story is Dennis Murphy. Jurors deliberating, asked by the state to pass judgment on another human being. We have two families out there. We had to take our time and make that right decision. What would they make of the weeks of testimony . Why a murder defendant who didnt even look like one . The first day i thought he was a lawyer. He had this boyish look as if to say, why am i here . I didnt do this. Seven jurors in the case spoke to dateline and told us initially they were an evenly divided panel of 12. As they talked, it became apparent they regarded some of the prosecution witnesses as literally unbelievable. And you as a juror have to make a decision, do i believe this story this person is telling me . Thats really hard. Especially when they tell you how many drugs they put in their system. When it came to this woman, the one who testified about denny attacking and choking her, jurors said they believed her story about being assaulted. But nonetheless, her testimony was not a deciding factor in their final decision. You still would have gotten to where you got. Yes. And once again, 13 years later, the investigation in the early days after hannahs disappearance still bedevilled the case. The jurors said the police work left them with so many unanswered questions. Pager, they didnt look at her pager, and she was a major pager user. I wasnt convinced she dropped the bag. Monday, tuesday, wednesday passed. And for those outside the jury room, the wait was excruciating. Theyre taking a long time. Yeah. October 6, 2010 the jurors say they weighed brad oborns testimony carefully. Doubid you believe him . None of us felt it was him, and none of his dman was there. So, on friday just after lunch came word of a decision. Lawyers, friends, family all assembled at the court. Hannahs brother stayed away shaking. I was at a friends house waiting by the phone. I was terrified. In just moments, there was no more need for guess work. Count one, is it your determination that defendant committed murder in this count in that he did purposely cause the death of hannah hill . Is that your decision . Yes, your honor. Denny ross guilty on all five counts. In the back of the courtroom, hannahs friend tara was visibly shaken. I was a wreck. It was just very intense. I remember thinking, thank you, god, and a sense of relief all in one fell swoop. Those long years of work for prosecutors and detectives had paid off. Jurors told us that in the end it all came down to the blood evidence on hannahs clothes. The dna outweighed a lot of unknowns for us. It said denny ross was there. As a result of the hannah hill case, lieutenant hughes at the akron Police Department department has made many changes throughout the years, especially in the Communications Department to make sure mistakes like the failure to locate hannahs car never happen again. 13 years on, can akron residents be assured that the screwup has been rectified . I believe so. There has been a lot of changes. What the jurors didnt know is that he is already serving a 25year sentence for the rape and attempted murder of this woman between the two trials. He will be 67 years old before he is eligible for parole. Were disappointed. We had hoped for a different result. Dennys lawyers filed a request for a new trial, which was denied. After the trial, reporter ed meyer said he was still suspicious of how the bag of evidence appeared below his window. Skeptics can still wonder. Despite the fact that the defense was brad killed hannah, oborn was never regarded as a serious suspect by the authorities. Brad said he loved hannah, and that living under a cloud of suspicion had taken its toll. Do you believe this verdict clears your name . I believe it has. I know i didnt do it. The only thing im guilty of is being a bad boyfriend, and i cant change that. I wish i could. If i had three wishes, all three of them would be to change that. I cant. On a rainy sunday after the verdict, hannahs friends and family gathered for a balloon release in her memory. They passed around sharpies and wrote little messages for the lost girl. Her brother. Im just so glad its over with, finally. Now i can start mourning. Father. Dad will always love you. The best friend. Fly high, my bright star. Love tara. And then after a brief prayer, they stood by the pond and the brisk wind carried away their goodbyes. Let go. Farewell to hannah hill. Never forgotten by her family and friends, or as it turned out, by the criminal justice system. Thats all for this edition of date line extra. Im craig melvin. Thank you for watching. Is your husband michael . Okay. Im sorry to tell you maam, hes been killed. No dear god. No. Shes like poison candy, attractive on the outside but deadly on the inside. She was pure evil. He fell in love with her. He thought she was the end all, be all. She had everything she wanted, but she longed for one thing more. Im positive. Like