Hillis gets 12 years in Tauzer slaying

Chris Hillis, the man charged with murdering Kern County Assistant District Attorney Stephen M. Tauzer, will serve no more than 12 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter.

Hillis, 48, who was scheduled to stand trial in five weeks on murder charges stemming from the stabbing death of Tauzer almost 13 months ago, formally accepted a deal offered by prosecutors from the state Attorney General's Office.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Californian before the plea agreement was made public, Hillis admitted he attacked Tauzer in a rage and killed him. Hillis said the fatal confrontation was triggered by the veteran prosecutor's acknowledgment that he had maintained a sexual relationship with Hillis' late son, Lance.

Hillis also held Tauzer largely responsible for enabling Lance's drug habit by defeating efforts by family members, probation officials and others to have Lance sentenced to prison in the hope he would escape his addiction.

Tauzer successfully lobbied to have Lance sent to rehabilitation programs, and Lance failed at least a half-dozen of them.

Hillis, who declared his innocence before Judge Roger Randall six months ago, entered the plea in the same courtroom. Calmly and with a strong voice, Hillis repeatedly answered "yes, sir" when Randall asked him if he understood all of the constitutional rights he was giving up.

Four "victim impact" letters written by Tauzer's siblings were read aloud in court shortly after Randall imposed the agreed-upon sentence.

"No matter what happens today, this is a wrong and it can never be right," said Tauzer's sister Patricia, the only family member who spoke for herself.

Hillis' attorney, Kyle Humphrey, also made a brief statement, saying Hillis accepted full responsibility for Tauzer's death and he'd bring the prosecutor back to life if he could. Hillis himself made no statement.

But outside of court, Hillis' son, Jason Hillis, lashed out at Tauzer.

"I'm not saying what Chris Hillis did was right," said Jason, a Kern County probation officer, "(but) it's hard enough keeping our children off drugs without a powerful man perverting the system."

Humphrey negotiated the term of 11 years, plus one year for using a knife. Hillis will get credit for having served almost a year in isolation at the county's Lerdo Jail.

He will have to serve 85 percent of the sentence, meaning he could be released in about nine years.

The facts of the case -- including an absence of premeditation -- fit the definition of voluntary manslaughter, both sides said after the hearing.

"Killing Steve was not a thought process. It was rage," Humphrey said.

Chris Hillis once suggested that a trial would bring some of Kern County's "skeletons" out of the closet. Deputy Attorney General David Druliner, one of the two state prosecutors assigned to the case, said the plea resolution was not borne out of any such concern.

"This plea was not the result of us not wanting to go to trial," Druliner said.

Tauzer, a popular, longtime fixture with more than 25 years in the D.A.'s office, was found dead in his garage by Hillis' father, Donald Hillis, on Sept. 15, 2002.

He'd been bludgeoned and stabbed to death sometime between Sept. 13 and 15, coroner's officials determined. Tauzer's injuries included 16 stab wounds to the head.

Hillis was an immediate suspect because of his long-standing and, in some law-enforcement circles, well-known feud with Tauzer over Lance Hillis.

Hillis was arrested in late October of that year after DNA evidence on a bloody knife next to Tauzer's body was linked to him. He's been held in jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail.

Kern County District Attorney Ed Jagels, a close friend of Tauzer's, said in a statement that he agreed with the plea bargain.

"Given the fact that any statement by the defendant regarding the precise circumstances of the homicide cannot be contradicted, this is a proper resolution of this case, and I fully concur in the deposition," Jagels wrote.

In an exclusive interview with The Californian before Tuesday's hearing, Hillis, a former Bakersfield police officer and D.A.'s investigator, said Tauzer sent him over the edge on the night of the killing when he described the nature of his relationship with Lance Hillis.

The younger Hillis, 22 at the time of his death, was killed in an August 2002 traffic collision about six weeks before Tauzer, 57, was found dead. He had been enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program in El Dorado County, near where the crash occurred.

Tauzer had long been a friend of Donald Hillis and a colleague of Chris Hillis, and had known Lance since he was a young teen.

In addition to lobbying judges on Lance's behalf, Tauzer paid expenses for the young man's apartment, allowed him to move in with him, supplied cars and money, helped him land a job with the county, paid for a Florida vacation and, when Lance was still a teenager, lobbied a judge to drop a bench warrant for his arrest.

Hillis said Lance told him he bought drugs with money he earned selling surplus computers Tauzer obtained from the county's Family Support Division.

In court, victim-impact statements by some of Tauzer's 13 siblings not only lambasted Hillis but the local media, calling them sensationalistic and hurtful.

Sister Patricia Tauzer Pavao said she lost a brother, her mother lost a son and the world lost a great man. He was a man, she said, who "wanted people to succeed and felt anyone could."

In a statement read by a family spokeswoman, Tauzer's much younger brother Paul described always eagerly awaiting Tauzer's arrival for family Thanksgiving dinner -- and how the prosecutor always brought a friend with no place else to celebrate.

Paul Tauzer said his brother loved Bakersfield, was always interested in the lives of his nieces and nephews and that he is particularly sad for his mother.

He lashed out at Hillis, writing: "You seem to have lived your life blaming your failures on others."

There's no rationalizing Tauzer's murder, said a statement by Tauzer's brother Mark. He recalled how Tauzer always spoke up when he felt a child was being mistreated and that he had great hopes for a rehabilitated Lance.

"Let us brand this (killing) for what it is -- a senseless act," he said.

In response to the family statements, Humphrey said Hillis was not a failure and lauded his career in law enforcement and in running a drug-rehabilitation facility that he named Lance's Haven.

Hillis family members also spoke after the hearing.

Pam Hillis, Hillis' wife, acknowledged the pain that Tauzer's family -- like her own -- must be feeling.

"They lost a brother. I lost a son. And I've lost a husband for -- what? -- 10 years? Everybody's hurting. Everybody lost," she said.

"But I love my husband and I will be here when he gets home."

Later in the day, Druliner and co-prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Michael Farrell, said the prosecution and defense began discussing a plea deal in July, immediately after a motions hearing in the case.

They said they'd long believed this was not a first-degree murder case and that's why they filed a straight murder charge. Hillis clearly did not plan the killing, Druliner said, in part because he didn't bring the murder weapons to Tauzer's house and he didn't take the weapons from the scene.

"It was a killing done without planning, with (Hillis) in a burning rage," Druliner said. "That kind of killing is voluntary manslaughter."

They said they informed Tauzer's family of the plea discussions but did not let them control the outcome. And they stressed they believed they would win a voluntary manslaughter conviction if the case went to trial and that there was "zero" chance of an acquittal.

Hillis received the maximum penalty for voluntary manslaughter. A conviction carries a punishment of three, six or 11 years in prison. The use of a knife added a year.

Humphrey described a similar evolution of thought on his side.

At first Hillis was in denial and did not confess to Humphrey, but after some time -- Humphrey wouldn't say when -- Hillis took responsibility for what happened, he said.

"It became clear the only defense we could go for was voluntary manslaughter -- because that's what it is," Humphrey said.

Humphrey did concede that in Kern County, it is "unique" to see a possible first-degree murder case pleaded down to voluntary manslaughter.

What was different?

The prosecutors were talented and fair, Humphrey said.

"They stepped back from the politics and said, 'what are we going to get at trial,'" Humphrey said. In the end, he said, "they got justice for their client and I got justice for mine."

Serving 12 years is no cakewalk, he said. "Twelve years is a living hell," Humphrey said.

Humphrey said Hillis will first go to Wasco State Prison, where he'll be processed and evaluated before being "placed into an appropriate prison setting."

"There's a good possibility he'll be sent to either Corcoran (State Prison) or the Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo because they have 'cop yards'" for inmates with backgrounds in law enforcement, Humphrey said.

In Kern County, the District Attorney's Office routinely makes police investigative reports public by filing them with its criminal complaint. In this case, the Attorney General's Office has not filed the reports, perpetuating rumors that embarrassing information about Tauzer, the District Attorney's Office or local law enforcement was being covered up.

Druliner and Farrell said they never file police reports with their complaints and that it's rarely done outside of Kern County. They strongly denied being part of any cover-up, saying they have no motive. People expecting dirt in the documents would be disappointed if they saw them, they said.

Given that, Farrell said that if Hillis does not file a federal writ of habeas corpus -- calling the plea deal unjust -- his office will consider releasing the reports and setting the record straight.

The prosecutors and Humphrey said they're not sure how long Hillis has to file a federal writ. Humphrey said he does not anticipate Hillis taking any such action.

Humphrey said he will not release his copies of the records because the "truth is out now" and he doesn't want to harm anybody further.

"Enough hurt has happened. Enough damage has happened to people," said Humphrey, who once worked for Tauzer in the D.A.'s office. "The truth is out now."