Patricia Hill, a 69-year-old Pine Bluff, Arkansas, woman who killed her husband last July when she “flew into a rage” after noticing that her husband had subscribed to a porn satellite TV channel on their monthly bill, as AVN.com reported yesterday, was convicted of second-degree murder after a brief trial this week.
Hill was reportedly estranged from her husband, Frank Hill, 65, though the couple still share the same residence, according to the Pine Bluff Commercial newspaper, with Frank spending much of his time in a shed on the property which he had converted into a “man cave” where he would drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and it appears, watch porn on TV.
But after canceling the channel the first time he ordered it, Patricia Hill “lost her mind,” according to her defense attorney, when she saw that Frank Hill had re-ordered the adult entertainment channel from DISH Network. She considered the porn channel a “personal affront to her and her god,” defense attorney Bill James said, according to the Commercial report.
On July 28, 2018, she confronted her husband and ordered him to stop watching porn and leave the “man cave.” When he refused, she went back into the house, got a gun and shot him.
The couple had been married 17 years, according to The Arkansas Democrat Gazette newspaper. Patricia Hill testified that before their marriage, she had discovered a collection of pornographic material in his home, and threw it away.
James said that Patricia Hill—a Sunday school teacher and longtime professional nurse—suffered from depression and had endured years of neglect from her husband. Seeing the renewed porn channel subscription, he said, was “the last straw” that caused her mind to snap.
Hill herself testified that she was not thinking when she shot her husband, and intended only to “get his attention” by firing at his feet.
Though she was tried on a capital murder charge and could have faced a mandatory life sentence, the jury instead found her guilty of a reduced second-degree murder charge. Late on Tuesday she was handed a sentence of 16 years behind bars.
Photos by Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
