(phone dialing)
(operator on phone)
(man on phone)
(operator on phone)
(man on phone)
Jami rebsom: Brad has no criminal history.
Young man. Reputable career.
He's adamant he did not hurt his wife amanda.
In fact, bradley was trying to save his wife's life that morning.
Bradley hillious: My wife was one of the most patient, loving, caring,
Understanding people I've ever met.
And I'm accused of a crime that I would never
Dream or think of doing.
A father behind bars, his wife dead,
And four children without a mother.
Prosecutors charge bradley hillious with deliberate homicide.
Investigators say his 33-year-old wife amanda died December 19th,
Four days after a violent attack.
My name is jami rebsom and I'm an attorney in livingston, montana.
I represent bradley hillious.
He is charged with deliberate homicide.
This is the most serious charge you could ever be accused of
In the state of montana, and it carries up to 100 years in prison.
The state is claiming that bradley and his wife amanda
Got into an argument that morning that got out of hand.
The state is going to allege
That brad killed his wife amanda by beating her,
Strangling her and then throwing her down the stairs.
Brad is married to amanda, they have four kids,
And also in the home is scott hillious, brad's father.
Brad claims that on the morning of December 15th, 2020,
He's woken from a deep sleep by a loud noise.
He rushes out of bed, runs through the house,
Trying to find out what's going on.
When brad reaches the stairwell to the downstairs basement,
He sees his wife, amanda, laying at the bottom of the stairway.
Bradley tells me he immediately begins cpr on his wife.
At that point, bradley yells out to his dad, "call 911, dad.
"amanda has fallen down the stairs."
When medical arrives, brad is sweaty and exhausted
And distraught.
Come on, babe.
Come on, baby.
Emt and paramedics work on her for 40 minutes
Before they transport her to the hospital.
And amanda ultimately dies.
My initial review of this case is that the medical records
Indicate that there doesn't seem to be any signs
Of strangulation or assault.
It looks like a fall down the stairs.
Brad has no criminal history.
Young man, father, reputable career.
Bradley is adamant he did not hurt his wife that morning.
What the state has to prove beyond reasonable doubt to the jury is that
Brad purposely or knowingly caused the death of amanda.
But it's one of the hardest cases to defend.
Juries always want somebody to be held accountable.
And it's really difficult for a jury to say the words "not guilty" in a case
Where somebody has died and someone is charged with their death.
Bradley is facing 100 years in prison.
We are fighting to save brad hillious' life.
Hillious: This last year has been an absolute horrific nightmare.
My life has gone from a beautiful home
With an amazingly gorgeous family
To living in an unfurnished basement apartment.
I wasn't a perfect husband.
She forgave me for a lot of things.
She'd yell at me sometimes,
Get pissed off at me.
We'd argue, we'd say what we have to say to each other,
Then we'd forgive each other.
I would do anything to trade my life for hers.
The nature of being gone at work so much,
I leave my kids when they're infants and I come back
And they're crawling,
And I leave when they're crawling
And I come back and they're running
And riding bicycles.
I never thought it could be worse.
Now they're not even living in the state of montana.
They're living... (sniffles)
...With my mother-in-law in oregon.
Two days after my wife had her accident,
Child protection services
And law enforcement came
And physically removed them from the house.
Right now my focus is to prove my innocence...
...And get our babies back home with their daddy.
-Morning, brad. Come on in. -Good morning.
Take a seat there.
Talk me through what happened that morning.
She had woke me up, talking about christmas presents for the kids,
And we were arguing.
I told her, "hey, you know, back off."
And she went out. I had gone back to bed.
I don't know what time elapsed but I heard someone scream.
I got out of bed, didn't see amanda anywhere.
I rounded near the stairs,
Saw my wife's at the bottom.
Once I got downstairs, I rolled amanda over, did a pulse check.
There was a very, very faint, weak pulse,
And started immediately doing chest compressions.
I had to tell my dad to call 911 and then I remember doing cpr.
All right, and then the sheriff's deputies arrive?
Yeah, I don't know how long it was after cpr.
A short time after that, the fire department arrived
And they were continuing to work on her.
(hillious crying)
Hillious: I was told to go back upstairs.
That's when the bombardment of six, seven officers
Standing in my home, questioning me simultaneously.
What the state has against you,
What they're going to be claiming at trial is that
You beat amanda, strangled her, threw her down the stairs.
We got to argue that her injuries are from a fall down the stairs.
And we've got some evidence to support that.
The marks on her body that we see in the hospital,
They all look like injuries that you would have sustained from falling down the stairs.
But we know that the state is going to bring up your affair with miss adams.
They are going to pull in miss adams to discuss
A relationship that you had with her
As some kind of motive for you to do something to your wife.
To me, an affair is not motive for homicide,
It's motive for divorce.
And so, we'll have to deal with that at trial,
But if the jury buys the state's case,
You're looking at up to 100 years in prison.
Brad, we have to do whatever we can to make sure that
You're acquitted of this charge.
Hillious: After hearing that I could be facing up to 100 years,
That's utterly crushing.
The jury could believe that I committed a crime and they could convict me of this.
What is really upsetting is the fact that an accident
Has taken my family, my home,
My job and everything away from me.
Right now, I'm feeling absolutely destroyed.
Like I don't have a future.
My client brad hillious is charged with deliberate homicide.
It carries up to 100 years in prison.
And I'm on my way to his house to meet with brad.
I'm going to be able to look
At these stairs that amanda fell down,
And have brad walk me through that morning
And what he recalls.
-Hi. -Hi. How are you?
Good.
So, this is mine and amanda's room.
And which side of the bed is yours?
I sleep on this side of the bed over here.
And that's where you were that morning?
That's where I was.
Then what happens?
Hillious: I heard someone scream.
I got out of bed, came around here and headed for the door.
I come around here.
When I got here, I reached over and hit the light on,
Looked down the stairs. I saw my wife at the bottom.
Wow. So, there's not a lot of room here.
And she was right here, brad?
She was right in this area right here.
Obviously, from here, I was like, okay, I got to move her.
I had gotten up, came around here.
And that's when you start cpr?
-Yes. I started chest compressions. -Okay.
And I continued that.
-Rebsom: Where was your dad? -Um...
You know, I... I think he was down on the stairs right here.
Okay, and then your dad called 911?
Right, that's when full reality had set in.
"oh, my god. I've just done cpr on my wife."
Rebsom: Amanda's injuries are consistent with a fall down the stairs.
All of the bruising are abrasions or scrapes,
Which is consistent as to appear that they were caused
By her falling down the stairs.
So this is all adding up.
All right, brad, well, thanks for letting me come in.
Okay? We'll be in touch and I'll call you.
-Okay, sounds good. -Great.
What strikes me when I walked into brad's house today is,
Of course, the staircase, it's very treacherous.
It's very narrow.
We know that it was dark. They're bare wood.
I think it's a staircase that if you fell and had an accident,
It might cause the kind of injuries, obviously,
That she has.
So now we want to look deeper into the medical evidence to see if,
In fact, amanda's injuries
Support this being an accidental fall
Or a strangulation, as the state claims.
Hillious: I am charged with an extremely heinous crime.
People I don't even know are literally typing in social media
That I'm going to disappear,
That I am scum, that I don't deserve to live.
It is unbelievable. They don't know me.
I am no longer living in kalispell because
I have received a lot of death threats.
There is a lot of concern in my mind that even after this,
Being able to return home an innocent man
Whether or not the community is going to support that
Or just be more angry with me.
Hey, dr. Kohr, it's jami.
Dr. Kohr: Good afternoon.
Dr. Kohr, what kind of injuries did you see on amanda
That supports, you know, that this is a fall down the stairs?
I see.
From your opinion, medical opinion, you've determined that
Homicide as a cause of death was inaccurate.
Mmm-hmm. Right.
And she does have that bruise right under her chin there.
Well, thank you, dr. Kohr.
Well, that was great, that was really good.
Yeah.
The biggest takeaway from today is that amanda
Was not strangled and her injuries
Were from a fall down the stairs, and that is his opinion.
We're going to be able to tell the jury that.
-Hey, brad. -Hillious: Hi, jami, how are you?
Come on in. I'm good.
We need to have a conversation about what's going to be
The elephant in the room at trial,
And that is the young lady that he did have an affair with.
We got to talk about the riley factor.
Obviously, you didn't plan to have an affair, I'm assuming.
Hillious: I did not plan to have an affair.
Amanda and I had our differences.
-Rylie and I clicked. -Right.
And it grew and manifested itself from there.
You've got to explain to me why did riley move to kalispell?
Because she accepted another position with another company.
I do know that you told the detectives on the 24th,
That, you know, once rylie had gotten moved up there,
You were going to call quits to the relationship with her.
-Mmm-hmm. -So is that true?
(sighs)
-Yes, it was wrong. -Yeah.
I reached out to rylie, and I went outside of the marriage.
I did. And I messed up.
Well, I think it's going to be hard.
It's going to be embarrassing.
Because the state's just going to hit on right away
That the timing of her moving to kalispell is, you know, an issue.
I definitely dread the day that we're in court
And the state's bringing in rylie adams to testify.
I dread that moment.
The most damaging evidence is the fact
That he was seeing rylie at the time of amanda's fall.
It gives the state a motive for him to want amanda out of the picture.
It's just going to be the worst obstacle to overcome in this trial.
The montana state crime lab
And the death certificate
At least tell us
That the cause of death is blunt force trauma,
Neck compression. No mention of any strangulation.
But when we get the autopsy report back,
We get photographs of a hyoid bone removed
From amanda hillious that is fractured bilaterally.
The hyoid is a bone located just below your tongue.
And in cases of strangulation,
The hyoid is often fractured or broken.
And as you can see it's completely severed on the ends there.
Right now we're looking at a head-neck ct scan
Of amanda hillious the morning she arrived at the hospital.
And we're looking at images specifically to focus
Our attention on the hyoid bone here.
If there was a fracture or complete break-off here, we would see this.
And you do not see any breaks. No fractures.
Look at it. Completely intact.
So her hyoid could have been broken at autopsy?
Rebsom: That's correct.
This is huge.
If this is broken at autopsy, clearly this was an accident.
There's no evidence, in our opinion,
That amanda had been strangled at all.
So we believe the state has a problem here
With their allegation that she's been strangled.
So we're off to kalispell to interview dr. Stine.
Dr. Stine is one of the radiologists that reviewed
The ct scans of amanda hillious in December of 2020.
It's essential that we prove that this hyoid wasn't broken,
So we'll see if dr. Stine can today.
Oh, my god. Heather.
Dr. Stine pulls up some other scans
That you and I hadn't looked at.
It's the neck ct,
And it's the side of the hyoid.
And she points to these displacements.
And they look like fractures.
I know.
I can't believe it.
Yeah, this is a major setback in the case today.
This morning, brad's going to come in
And we're going to watch some videos from
December 15th, that morning.
We're going to see how his dad's behavior is odd and suspicious.
Scott's relationship with amanda was somewhat tumultuous.
Her and scott had a lot of arguments.
-Hey, brad, come on in. -Hello.
Rebsom: Scott lived in the home
Because brad worked out of the home
For about eight to nine months of the year,
So when amanda was at work,
Scott would tend to the children during the day.
Rebsom: This is when your dad comes into view and we see him
Hanging out in the living room here.
He's just standing there and he was professionally trained
To render first aid cpr
And he's just standing in the living room watching
What's going on, watching me cry at the feet of my wife.
And he steps over.
He doesn't offer any help. He doesn't do anything.
What was the relationship like between amanda and scott?
Hillious: They butt heads a lot.
He was notorious for just being belittling
And aggressive toward her.
Anything could set him off at any given time.
My dad came upstairs
And he looks at me dead square in the face,
Pale white, and goes, "do you love me?"
And I said, "well, of course I love you. What's going on?"
He goes, "I can't... I can't do this anymore. I'm not going to prison."
Approximately 30 minutes after that,
I heard a gunshot from the barn outside and...
(sighs)
At that point, I knew what my dad had done.
It looks like maybe his dad had something to do with it.
Scott's behavior that morning is really bizarre.
All right, jami, thank you.
My take on it is brad's father was a much more likely suspect.
I do think they were looking at the wrong individual from the get-go.
So if the jury believes scott had done something to amanda that morning,
They've got to find brad not guilty.
Rebsom: Amanda says, "brad does pin me against the kitchen sink
"with his forehead and says, 'you're not leaving with the kids,'"
And he smashed her phone.
She talks about how scott is threatening,
Yells at her and says,
"I know hells angels, they can kill you."
Amanda puts this all in her restraining order paperwork.
You know, that's not going to be good for our case at all.
-Hey. -Suzanne marshall: Hi. How's it going?
Suzanne: What is scott doing?
He is right now threatening to go get a gun to shoot
Law enforcement or himself.
Officer: Hey. Hey.
Officer: Yeah. Have a seat on the bumper.
-Scott: Shoot me. -Officer: We're not going to.
Shoot me. Please. Please.
Brad's wife serves scott with a temporary restraining order,
Which kicks him out of his home and he instantly is upset
Because amanda is taking his grandkids away.
Scott: I have nowhere to go.
I have nothing to live for.
Because I'll never be able to hug my grandkids again.
Scott's whole life is in this home, with these kids,
With his dogs, his possessions.
His dog and his pets.
Listening to him, it's not surprising what he did,
In terms of his suicide.
So this is essential, I think, for our case.
I think the jury really needs to see this, don't you?
Oh, for sure, for sure.
Hillious: I'm pretty much emotionally wore out.
I've relived this whole thing every single day.
Here we are at the 11th hour
Getting ready to head into trial
And the anxiety is extremely high.
I rely on proving that I'm exonerated and innocent of this.
I hold onto the hope that someday very soon
I'll be reunited with my children.
So, suzanne, these photographs are somewhere.
I think I saw those.
Oh, my gosh. Suzanne, look at this.
Look at this red duffle bag with rylie's clothes right on amanda's side of the bed.
This is only nine days after amanda's fallen down
The stairs and died.
-These are definitely not good. -Right.
Suzanne: The bed looks slept in.
Rebsom: That's not going to look good for brad.
It looks like she was planning on being there for a while.
Mirror right on the nightstand, on amanda's side of the bed.
-This is terrible. -Right.
That's probably the worst evidence that we have in the case.
Rebsom: Well, this is definitely an uphill battle.
Everything's on the line here for brad.
You know, we walk in
And just being the defendants puts a target on us.
Woman: Can you find, like, an extra box?
Hillious: I'm nervous. Scared.
I'm not the first person in history to have an affair.
But I didn't have any involvement in this.
I'm not the person they're making out.
Yeah. (sniffles) so we'll just see how it goes.
Court recorder: District court is now in session
With the honorable bob allison.
Judge: Be seated, please.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
What we want you to know about this case is that
There was a total rush to judgment by law enforcement
Accusing mr. Hillious of harming his wife.
Mr. Hillious is considered suspect number one,
The only suspect from the minute law enforcement get there.
But not one piece of evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt
That mr. Hillious caused the death of his wife.
So we're going to ask you to please look at the actual evidence
And find mr. Hillious not guilty.
Ahner: Did amanda's injuries seem consistent
With a fall down the stairs?
Her injuries were far more severe than we would
Normally expert with a fall down the stairs.
Donovan: Did you become suspicious about the mechanism
That caused these injuries?
The injuries were extensive enough,
Especially in the areas about her head that did not
Appear consistent with a fall down the stairs.
Donovan: Okay.
Could you describe that fracture of amanda's hyoid?
It's typically seen in the setting of hanging,
Or strangulation or some sort of forceful, direct trauma.
Donovan: Doctor, had you treated patients falling down stairs before?
Yes.
Was the injuries that miss hillious had consistent
With individuals falling down stairs?
It seemed a little unusual to me
That such severe swelling and injuries would likely happen in a fall.
Donovan: What's your understanding of the mechanisms
That can cause injury to the hyoid?
Overwhelmingly, injuries occur from either hanging or from strangulation.
Rebsom: Dr. Craig,
When did you start doing a bunch of research on the hyoid bone?
Dr. Craig: When I learned somewhat after the fact that the hybrid bone was fractured.
Rebsom: Have you created any report on this hyoid bone research?
No.
Rebsom: You're aware that a hyoid bone can be broken in a fall, correct?
I think it's possible.
Rebsom: Well, there's literature on it.
Didn't you read the literature on that?
Dr. Craig: I haven't seen every article in the world.
Rebsom: Dr. Craig, I'm going to let you go.
I don't have any other questions for you.
-Thank you. -Dr. Craig: Thank you.
I feel like dr. Craig's testimony today was very helpful
To our case, to acknowledge that
The broken hyoid itself does not definitely indicate strangulation.
That was magnificent.
I really saw the jury take note of that.
Court recorder: You do solemnly swear the testimony
You're about to give is the truth,
The whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god?
Michelle wungluck: Yes.
We were sitting out in the waiting room to go back into the icu.
And I was having a conversation with him.
Because of his job, he can live pretty much anywhere.
And I told him I would really like him if he could move to oregon...
(voice breaking) ...So I could help him with the kids.
(crying) because I wanted them to grow up
Knowing who their mom was and how wonderful she was
And how much she loved them.
And brad said, "yeah, they'll always know who amanda is.
"but the kids and I have to move on with our lives."
My daughter is sitting in an icu bed
Just through some double doors.
She's not even gone yet.
Scott: Shoot me, please. Please shoot me.
-Officer: We're not going to. -Shoot me.
I have nothing to live for.
Rebsom: We know that after the autopsy results come back,
-30 minutes later, scott's dead. -Okay.
He's committed suicide. That would indicate
That he is much more likely of a suspect.
Judge: So we will pick this up where we're leaving off
Right now at nine o'clock.
Once again, thank you very much.
So, thank you.
Judge: Have a seat, counsel.
I just wanted to make, I guess, a supplemental ruling.
Here's what I'm going to do with respect to the death of scott.
I'm going to order that neither party are to refer
To that as anything other than scott's suicide.
No descriptive adjectives.
Nothing like his mysterious death or his guilt-riddled suicide.
What the jury needs to hear is facts.
And if I hear any from your mouth,
I'll call you out on it in front of the jury.
Rebsom: We were absolutely blown away by the fact that we couldn't use a defense
In trial that scott was guilty and that's why he took his own life.
It completely devastated our defense.
These last couple of days in court
Have been pretty rough.
I can't even imagine being in brad's position right now.
I think he's terrified.
To me, they're continuing this witch hunt,
And they are negligent.
They are wasting taxpayer money,
They are wasting their time and everyone else's.
This is just a humongous miscarriage of justice.
Rebsom: Today, the state starts presenting evidence of the affair with riley adams.
I hate that the state is using that
As that's their only real evidence towards any kind of motive in this case.
Court recorder: You do solemnly swear the testimony
You're about to hear is the truth, the whole truth,
And nothing but the truth, so help you god?
-So help you god? -Rylie adams: Yes.
-Ahner: Good morning. -Good morning.
Ahner: Please state your first and last name.
Rylie adams.
Ahner: Did you begin having an affair with the defendant
-Sometime before April of 2020? -Yes.
Ahner: When law enforcement questioned you,
You actually refused to answer questions
About your relationship with him, didn't you?
I don't recall.
Okay. Miss adams, do you recognize that?
-Looks like his master bedroom. -Okay.
That's amanda's side of the bed.
That's your mirror, isn't it?
Yes.
Ahner: Miss adams. That's your bag, right?
-Adams: The red one? -Yep.
That's at the base of that nightstand on amanda's side of the bed, right?
-Okay -ahner: Is it?
From the picture, it looks like it.
Ahner: Do you not remember where you put your bag?
-I do not remember where I put my stuff. -Ahner: Okay.
You and the defendant were hoping to get amanda out of the house.
-Weren't you? -No.
You were ready to move into this house
The end of November of 2020, weren't you?
No.
I was under the impression that on their own accord,
They were separating and divorcing.
I didn't "want" amanda out of the house.
I didn't want anything bad to happen to her.
I didn't want anything bad to happen to anybody.
No. I did not "want" amanda out of the house.
How dare you accuse me of even wanting that?
Thank you. I don't have any other questions.
Our last witness is detective rich schuster.
Rebsom: You could see a total shift in the jury's composure
And demeanor as a result of hearing that evidence.
And, of course, I just feel like it was highly inflammatory
And that's exactly what the state wanted.
This wasn't a fall down the stairs.
The medical examiner goes through and documents
36 separate injuries on this woman's body
From the head all the way to her ankles.
Seventeen just in her head.
And what was the motive?
The motive was to get this squatter out of the house
And get his new girlfriend in.
Ladies and gentlemen, return a guilty verdict
On the charge of deliberate homicide.
Whose job is it to prove the case to you?
Is it brad hillious and I?
No. It's the state of montana only.
If you think for one second that scott hillious lost his mind on December 15th
And thought maybe brad and amanda were fighting
And helped her down the stairs, you have to vote "not guilty."
You have not seen one shred of evidence
That this man harmed his wife that morning.
And so we are asking you to please say, "not guilty."
Don't be afraid to do that.
Thank you.
Judge: Thank you, miss rebsom.
Hillious: Been about four and a half hours
That the jury has been talking this over.
At any moment, my life could become worse or become better.
They have a verdict?
Ladies and gentlemen, have you reached a verdict?
-Jury foreman: We have. -Judge: All right.
State of montana, plaintiff, v. Bradley j. Hillious, defendant.
Verdict, we, the jury, find the defendant as follows:
-Guilty. -(girl crying)
Judge: The defendant is remanded in the custody of the sheriff.
No matter how much I say, we presented a good case,
To hear the word "guilty" was so devastating for us,
Because all that hard work,
Believing your client is innocent,
It's just so shocking.
I just feel so bad for brad.
I feel like he's in jail because he had an affair,
Not because he's guilty.
(somber music playing)