Danny Lee Hill wants new trial, saying key witness recanted 1986 testimony in torture, killing


WARREN

Attorneys for Danny Lee Hill have asked in a 419-page document for a hearing where witnesses and evidence can be presented to dispute evidence presented at his 1986 trial – including testimony about bite marks found on his 12-year-old victim’s body.

The document asks Visiting Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove to grant a new trial for Hill, who is on death row in the murder, which is widely viewed as the most horrific crime in Trumbull County history.

Attys. Sarah Kostick and Vicki Ruth Adams Warneke filed their motion for a new trial Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court after Judge Cosgrove’s ruling a week ago that granted permission for them to do so.

Hill, 49, was convicted of murder, arson, kidnapping and rape in a 1986 trial in the brutal torture and killing of Raymond Fife, 12, in a wooded area along Palmyra Road while Raymond was riding his bicycle to a Boy Scouts meeting Sept. 10, 1985.

A co-defendant, Timothy Combs, was 17 at the time of the murder and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility in 2049.

The filing says Dr. Curtis Mertz, a dentist and oral surgeon who testified at Hill’s trial regarding the bite marks found on Raymond’s penis, later recanted his testimony privately to a colleague, Dr. Franklin Wright, one of Hill’s expert witnesses.

The filing says one of the reasons Hill should be retried is that the opinion Dr. Mertz expressed at trial – that it’s possible to identify the person who left the bite marks, and that person was Hill – has been refuted over the past decade.

Read more about the case in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.