AKRON, Ohio - Day two of testimony in the Denny Ross retrial resumes in Summit County Common Pleas Court. Ross is accused of killing Hannah Hill in 1999 and stuffing her body in the trunk of her car on Caine Road in Ellet. Follow our updates below:
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3:57 p.m.: O'Born is dismissed. Court adjourns for the day and testimony will resume Thursday morning at 9.
3:45 p.m.: Having been testifying for six hours, prosecutors ask O'Born, "Knowing Hannah Hill, would she have fought the man who strangled her?"
“Hannah would’ve fought. She would’ve fought for her life," said O'Born.
3:30 p.m.: Defense rests in questioning O'Born. Prosecutors ask a few final questions to clear up a few loose ends. O'Born says Denny Ross never broke up a fight between him and Hill and police were never called to intervene with their verbal altercations.
3:20 p.m.: On June 21, 1999, O’Born called Akron police Sgt. Hughes and asked him if they were looking for anyone else besides Denny Ross in connection to Hill's murder. O’Born recalls giving police “information I gathered on my own from other people. Any information I had I gave to (police).”
Defense then asks O’Born if he had any fights with anyone else after the “big fight” with Hannah Hill where she scratched his body days before she went missing. His response is no. Attorneys show him a photo of his swollen left hand when authorities question him after Hannah's body was found, but O’Born says it doesn’t “appear” to be any different looking to him.
3 p.m.: Ross’s defense attorney asks O’Born, “Do you know what the high temperature was in May 1999? 70. Do you sweat when temperatures are in the 60s?”
“I sweat when I walk 5 miles in a panic,” responded O’Born, after a heated exchange with Ross’s defense attorney.
2:49 p.m.: Playing with his hands, O'Born continues to answers questions from Ross's attorneys. He says the last time he ever spoke to Hannah was the night of May 18, 1999 around 7. He said then he smoked pot, watched TV and went to bed.
2:40 p.m.: O'Born is back on the stand being questioned by Ross's defense attorneys. Jurors hear a phone conversation between O'Born and an Akron police officer in June 3, 2004. O'Born is heard talking about how Hannah would go to his mom's house while he was in the county jail so he could speak to both at the same time.
O'Born says Hannah would play messages back for him that friends of his left on her pager. O'Born says Hannah would tell him "these people aren't your friends." She was referring to Denny Ross, explains O'Born, as she says he, and others, were trying to "get with her" while he was locked up.
O'Born says you could tell it was Denny Ross in the recorded messages "by the sinister voice." O'Born recalls Ross saying in one of the messages that "I've known Brad longer than you have. He'd never believe you."
2:20 p.m.: Judge calls for a 10 minute break.
2:10 p.m.: Ross's attorneys ask O'Born is he knows Hannah Hill's journal from 1999 has never been found. O'Born responds, "no."
2 p.m.: O'Born tells Ross's defense attorneys that Hannah would take pills he sold, Diazepam (a muscle relaxer) and that he's the reason Hannah began using drugs.
1:53 p.m.: A diary entry reads, "(O'Born) snapped at me as usual." Defense attorneys say that doesn't sound like love to them. The diary also called O'Born a "pill head." O'Born says he knew Hannah loved him.
1:49 p.m.: O'Born says he was abusive to Hannah while he lived at Denny Ross's apartment, but he can't say if Ross say the abuse. O'Born says he would kick Hill, "I never hit her."
1:43 p.m.: Jurors are seeing pages out of Hannah Hill's journal where she wrote about fights with O'Born, going to Denny's house and how much she was hurt by O'Born reading her journal. O'Born doesn't recollect reading much of the writing.
1:40 p.m.: O'Born is now being questioned by Ross's defense. The attorneys are asking him on ho many occasions he spokes with the prosecution. O'Born says a few and notes he was just told yesterday he'd be testifying in the case.
1:37 p.m.: Prosecutors ask the million dollar question: "Mr. O'Born, did you kill Hannah Hill?" O'Born: "Absolutely not."
1:26 p.m.: O'Born talks about being institutionalized for drug use and alcohol abuse and how he "continued to do the same thing over and over again." He was convicted of several drug charges and spent time behind bars for the crimes.
1:22 p.m.: O'Born went back "to my old ways" and began dating someone new. But that relationship turned abusive also. O'Born says he wasn't the offender, the new girlfriend was. That girlfriend didn't understand how he could still be in love with Hannah. At some point, he was hit in the head with a tire iron by the new girlfriend.
1:10 p.m.: Court is back in session. Brad O'Born is again still being questioned by prosecutors. Jurors are now looking at a gold, diamond heart rope chain necklace O'Born said he bought for Hannah. They're also seeing the license plate cover on
her gold Geo Prizm that says Hannah Christine Hill love Bradley Joseph O'Born.
12:20 p.m.: See PHOTOS of the scratch marks on O'Born's body that jurors saw during part of his testimony this morning: http://ow.ly/d9Ag7 .
Prosecutors say they still have an hour and a half left of questioning before the defense gets to take their shot at O'Born.
11:57 a.m.: Crying again, O'Born is asked if he blamed himself for Hill's murder. He replies, "yes." When asked if he still blames himself for Hill's murder, O'Born responds, "yes."
Judge calls for an hour lunch break. Prosecution will pick up testimony again around 1 p.m.
11:51 a.m.: Brad O'Born says police took a letter from his house after Hannah Hill’s body was found on May 26, 1999. The letter said he didn't want to lose Hannah and that he loved her. "I was trying to save our relationship,” explains O’Born. He also apologized for his behavior in the note.
On Thursday, May 27, 1999, O’Born says he finds out Denny Ross was arrested in connection to Hannah’s murder.
“I was surprised,” says O’Born. “I called a lot of people…I called Jen Edwards to find out if she knew anything. I called Tara, because we were all close. I didn’t understand why (Hannah) went over there.”
O’Born says he got “some things together” and grabbed some guns and went to Denny’s house to “get revenge.” They never stopped because police cars were at the Canton Road apartment.
Instead, they went home and smoked weed. O’Born says he doesn’t remember what they did with the guns.
11:45 a.m.: Jurors hear brief recording between Akron police Lt. Hughes and Brad O'Born. It played for a few seconds and O'Born admits that was his voice and him throwing up, adding he was never advised of his rights during that recorded conversation. Crying, O'Born says he never thought Denny "would kill someone." He was surprised to learn Hannah talked on the phone to Denny Ross before she was killed. O'Born, continuing to cry, says if it weren't for him, Hannah would have never met Ross. (Ross and O'Born lived together briefly for a short time. It was the party house.)
11:39 a.m.: O’Born says a friend called his buddy at work to tell him Hannah Hill’s body was found in the trunk of her car. O’Born says he “threw up” when he heard the news. He says he called police, but could hardly talk. “It was raining that day and I walked outside and sat down in the middle of the rain.”
11:30 a.m.: Jurors see photos of scratch marks left all over O'Born's body by Hill days before she disappeared.
11:20 a.m.: Prosecutors are showing photos of the scratch marks on O'Born's neck and arms he says Hannah left after they got into a fight days before she went missing.
11:15 a.m.: O'Born says he talked with Akron police Sgt. Hughes after Hannah’s mom files a missing person’s report. O’Born describes his relationship with Hannah as “not the best. Our arguments sometimes turned physical. I showed him scratches on me from an altercation we had days before.” O’Born says he gave authorities consent to take photos of his scratch marks, implying he had nothing to hide.
11:07 a.m.: O’Born believes he was accused behind his back of being the person responsible for Hannah’s disappearance as he tried searching for her and questioned friends of Hannah’s.
11 a.m.: “I knew something was terribly wrong. I felt it in my gut,” explains O’Born as he recalls the hours after Hill went missing. At this point, O’Born says he started doing drugs again. He drank himself to sleep and when he woke back up, he went searching for Hill.
10:57 a.m.: O’Born says he repeatedly pages Hannah on May 19, 1999 and gets no response. He goes back to bed and get up a few hours later and still can’t get in touch with Hannah. He then calls her work, Diebold, and they say she never came in. Worried, O’Born called Hannah’s parents she never picked him up for work, as she did every other day, and he was concerned. He asks if she’s at the house and her parents say no. O’Born suggests the Hills call police.
10:45 a.m.: Brad O'Born returns to the stand where he's being questioned by the assistant prosecutor. He's talking about the events on Tuesday, may 18 and how Hannah took him to work and picked him up. He says that evening, they got into a fight over him drinking her beer. O'Born says Hannah left and went hoome and he paged her once.
10:30 a.m.: O'Born's testimony is leading up to the final hours before Hill's murder. Judge calls a brief break.
10:15 a.m.: O'Born says Hill's favorite movie was "My So-Called Life" and she would always bring it with her when she would stay the night at his house. O'Born says after he got out of jail, he would talk to Hannah every day and see her just about every day. But he says they argued "a lot" over his past and cheating. O'Born says he never hit Hannah in front of other people, but she hit him in front of others. O'Born says friends had to separate the two of them, but police were never called.
10 a.m.: O'Born says at some point, he began
living at the Canton Road apartment of Denny Ross under the condition he pay rent or give drugs as a payment. “There was never any food in the fridge,” O'Born says. At the time, Ross was just someone to “get high with,” explains O'Born. He says Hill came over there “pretty regularly” to party.
9:54 a.m.: O'Born talks about a phone call from Hannah that got him out of bed. “She called and asked me to go to a party. It made me happy.” The party was in an open field, “a big who ha.” O'Born says he went with several friends.
9:45 a.m.: “I was not a good boyfriend. I was abusive. I abused (Hill) physically,” says O'Born as he cried.
9:42 a.m.: Crying, O'Born discusses his relationship with Hannah Hill and her parents. He says he wasn't welcomed at her parents' house because "of what I did for a living." O'Born says as soon as he met Hill at a party, "it was an instant connection.
9:40 a.m.: O'Born says his relationship with his mother in 1998 “was great. He says he never graduated Ellet High School “because of decisions I made weren't the best. I chose to leave and thought I had all the answers.” To make a living, O'Born sold drugs.
9:30 a.m.: O'Born is now 32 years old. He says his parents aren't married, he now lives by himself and attends AA meetings regularly to keep away from drugs and alcohol. His sobriety date is Oct. 6, 2010.
O'Born's criminal record is lengthy, including possession of marijuana, grand theft, trafficking drugs, identity theft, robbery and more. He says he took the blame for some of Hill's drug usage in 1999 when they were caught with the paraphernalia in a hotel room. O'Born also says his drug usage in 1998-1999 was “everyday. Cocaine, marijuana and pills.”
O'Born called himself “insane” at that time he was dating Hill.
9:22 a.m.: Judge Judy Hunter and jurors arrive in the courtroom. Hunter asks jurors if they've all complied with her order not to discuss this case. They all answer collectively, “yes.”
Prosecutors call their first, Brad O'Born, to testify. O'Born was Hill's boyfriend.
9:05 a.m.: Denny Ross enters the courtroom with his attorneys by his side. Ross is dressed in a light blue button down shirt. We're still waiting for court to begin.
8:50 a.m.: Testimony is expected to begin in about 10 minutes. The judge won't release the witness list, which is said to be 150 long for each side, so it's not clear who will be taking the stand today. Likely, it will be police officers who were part of the original investigation.
Ross originally stood trial in 2000 for Hill's murder, but a judge declared a mistrial after learning jurors had discussed a lie detector test.
After more than a decade of appeals from Ross’s attorneys, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in Dec. 2010 that Ross could be retried, however, the death penalty couldn't be considered.
Ross is currently serving a 25-year sentence in the Trumbull Correctional Institution after being convicted in 2004 of raping an Akron woman, a crime he committed while free on bond in the Hill case.
You can visit our special section dedicated to the retrial, http:// on.wews.com/ NUzyj9, which includes videos of Ross in court over the years and a 13-year timeline of events. You can also learn more about who Denny Ross is and about the life of Hannah Hill.
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By: Tina Kaufmann, newsnet5.com
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