State v. Hillard

• Decision Date: 10 June 2022
• Docket Number: 122,163
• Parties: STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Jeff HILLARD, Appellant.
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

511 P.3d 883

STATE of Kansas, Appellee,

v.Jeff HILLARD, Appellant.

No. 122,163

Supreme Court of Kansas.

Opinion filed June 10, 2022.

Wendie C. Miller, of Kechi, argued the cause and was on the briefs for appellant.

Lance J. Gillett, assistant district attorney, argued the cause, and Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, were with him on the brief for appellee.

The opinion of the court was delivered by Wall, J.:

A jury convicted Jeff Hillard of a half dozen offenses—including first-degree premeditated murder—in connection with the kidnapping, torture, and killing of Scottie Goodpaster Jr., and the kidnapping and rape of Goodpaster's girlfriend, S.S. Hillard committed these offenses with several codefendants, including his wife Heidi Hillard, with whom he was jointly tried. See State v. Hillard , 313 Kan. 830, 491 P.3d 1223 (2021).

In his direct appeal, Hillard claims many errors occurred over the course of his prosecution. In the end, we agree with Hillard, and the State concedes, that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. We reverse that conviction and vacate the accompanying sentence. That said, we reject Hillard's other claims of error and affirm his remaining convictions and sentence.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On November 5, 2016, Goodpaster and Hillard's wife, Heidi, arranged a deal to buy methamphetamine. Heidi gave Goodpaster $185, and he handed the money over to Andrew Cummings. Cummings was then supposed to purchase the methamphetamine. Goodpaster, along with his girlfriend, S.S., awaited Cummings' return at a Wichita hotel in Sedgwick County.

Several hours later, Cummings' whereabouts were still unknown. Heidi called Alexandria Scott, who was friends with Cummings, and asked Scott to help Heidi figure out what had happened with the methamphetamine deal. Brian Bussart and Willie Morris, both acquaintances of the Hillards, picked up Scott in the Hillards' white Chevrolet truck. They then met up with the Hillards, who were in a Chevrolet Equinox, and the two parties drove to the hotel where Goodpaster and S.S. were staying.

The group gained access to Goodpaster's hotel room and started interrogating Goodpaster and S.S. about the drug deal. While in Goodpaster's hotel room, the group learned the deal fell through. Heidi became angry with what she perceived as S.S.'s lack of cooperation, and Heidi began to suspect S.S. might be wearing a wire. After checking S.S. for a wire, Heidi and Scott took S.S.'s two cell phones from the room. Heidi ordered S.S. and Goodpaster to leave with the group. S.S. began crying because she did not want to leave with them, but Heidi threatened to hurt S.S. if she did not cooperate.

Goodpaster got into the white Chevrolet truck with Bussart and Morris, and Bussart drove them directly to the Hillards' house at 1310 S. Meridian Street in Valley Center (a city in Sedgwick County). The three men smoked methamphetamine in the truck, and then went into the house to await the arrival of the others. Surveillance video recovered from the Hillards' home surveillance system showed the men in the truck outside the Hillards' home around 4:15 a.m.

In the meantime, S.S. got into the Equinox with the Hillards and Scott. Hillard first dropped Scott off at a friend's house. Before the Hillards and S.S. departed, Scott gave Heidi a white t-shirt from inside the friend's house. Heidi, who was in the backseat with S.S., tied S.S.'s arms behind her back and blindfolded her in the backseat using strips of the t-shirt. Heidi then accused Goodpaster of trying to set her up. She wanted S.S. to tell her about Goodpaster's plan. S.S. told Heidi that she knew Goodpaster had a plan, but she was unaware of its details. Heidi kept insisting that S.S. tell the truth. Heidi then began tasing S.S. on her side, arms, and legs.

Hillard eventually stopped the car. He leaned over the front seat, and either Hillard or Heidi tied some type of cord around S.S.'s neck. The Hillards then pulled S.S.'s pants down and tased her inside her genitals several times. S.S. believed Hillard was holding the taser because it felt like the person tasing her was using more force than Heidi had used previously. S.S. also felt Hillard's weight on her.

In a bid to get the Hillards to stop tasing her, S.S. said she would tell them what they wanted to know. S.S. then began fabricating details of Goodpaster's supposed plan to set up the Hillards. S.S. said the police were involved with the drug deal, and S.S. suggested the Hillards might get arrested. Hillard returned to the driver's seat and drove to the Hillards' house. When they arrived, the Hillards took S.S. into one of several outbuildings on their property and tied her to a chair.

When Bussart saw the Equinox parked outside the Hillards' house, he went to the outbuilding. The Hillards were inside with S.S., who was sitting in a chair, still blindfolded. The Hillards told Bussart that Goodpaster planned to call the Kansas Department for Children and Families, report that Heidi had abused or neglected her children, and then have the Hillards arrested so Goodpaster could rob their house. At the Hillards' request, Bussart went to get Goodpaster from the house. Morris followed Bussart and Goodpaster to the outbuilding. Surveillance video shows the three men walking from the house to the outbuilding around 6 a.m.

Once in the outbuilding, Goodpaster sat in a chair, and the Hillards began questioning him. He denied the existence of any plan to set them up. For several hours, Heidi, aided by Hillard, Bussart, and Morris, continued to question Goodpaster about his alleged plan. The group was often unsatisfied with Goodpaster's answers and began torturing him. Over the course of the interrogation, Goodpaster was hit with various objects, tased, prodded with objects in his ear canal, cut, and threatened with other acts of torture. Hillard also strangled Goodpaster for several seconds with an electrical cord. S.S. eventually joined in and hit Goodpaster with a piece of wood. S.S. testified she did so to convince the Hillards she was on their side. At one point, Hillard even went outside to start a motorcycle and left it running, ostensibly so the engine noise would cover the sound of Goodpaster's screams.

Goodpaster unsuccessfully tried to escape from his tormentors several times. On his first attempt, Bussart tackled him to the ground, and then Bussart, Hillard, and Morris picked him up and brought him back to the chair. A few minutes later, Goodpaster tried to escape again. Members of the group tackled Goodpaster, but this time they bound him to the chair with zip ties. Goodpaster later tried to escape by jumping through a window, but he was tackled by Hillard and Morris outside.

At some point, Bussart left to get cigarettes. When he returned, Hillard and Morris were holding Goodpaster down on the ground outside the outbuilding. Morris retrieved some tape and taped Goodpaster's mouth shut. The group then loaded Goodpaster into a wagon and took him to the truck. Hillard retrieved a piece of rope that had been tied into a noose. They used the rope to bind Goodpaster's feet and pull him into the truck. Goodpaster appeared to be alive when he was loaded into the truck. Hillard then got in the driver's seat, Bussart got in the front passenger seat, and Morris got in the backseat with Goodpaster.

The group drove in the truck to the home of Hillard's former brother-in-law, Craig Bright, who also lived in Valley Center. On the way, Bussart could hear Goodpaster breathing heavily. But after three or four minutes, Bussart could no longer hear Goodpaster breathing. Bussart thought Goodpaster might have been dead at that point, but he was not sure.

At Bright's home, Hillard told Bright he needed Bright's help. Hillard asked to stash something at Bright's house and stated that Bright did not need to know what it was. Hillard appeared to have blood on his hands but said it was not his. Bright gave Hillard a roll of paper towels and a bottle of cleaner to get him to leave. Bright observed someone slumped over in the backseat of Hillard's truck. After the group left, Bright immediately called 911.

After the stop at Bright's house, the group drove for about an hour toward rural Harvey County. At some point, either before or after their stop at Bright's house, they discussed how to get rid of Goodpaster's body. They drove on back roads in a rural area until they found an open gate. They stopped the truck, and Hillard, Bussart, and Morris used the rope around Goodpaster's feet to drag him to a creek area. Bussart thought Goodpaster was dead at this point. At Hillard's direction, Bussart removed the rope from Goodpaster's feet and then put it around Goodpaster's neck. Hillard threw the rope over a tree branch, hoisted Goodpaster up, and tied the rope off. Hillard, Bussart, and Morris then drove to a car wash and cleaned the blood from the back floorboard and backseat of the truck. They also had blood on their clothes, so they stopped to get new clothing.

Officers were dispatched to the Hillards' home after receiving Bright's 911 call and another 911 call from Hillard's mother, Shirley Grunder, who had witnessed Hillard and the others loading Goodpaster into the truck. Officers conducted an initial sweep of the property and found Heidi and S.S., along with two children, inside the Hillards' home. Hillard returned home later that day and was arrested.

Officers eventually located Goodpaster's body in Harvey County on November 12, hanging from a tree with a rope around his neck. Forensic pathologist Dr. Ronald Distefano performed Goodpaster's autopsy. He documented many superficial injuries all over Goodpaster's body. In Dr. Distefano's medical opinion, Goodpaster died from asphyxiation

by hanging. He reached this conclusion based largely on the fact that law enforcement had discovered Goodpaster's body hanging from a tree....