Man Gets 4 Years For His Role in Murder of 91-Year-Old Woman

A 70-year-old man was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for his role in the death of a 91-year-old woman who was killed at her home in Dublin more than two years ago over a bitter child custody battle.

was initially charged with murder and burglary for the
killing of Selma Hill and an attack on her grandson, 39-year-old Eric Hill, at a home in the 7700 block of Peppertree Lane on Jan. 7, 2009.

But the Alameda County District Attorney's Office eventually concluded that Li played only a minor role in the attack and agreed last month to allow him to plead guilty to burglary and being an accessory after the fact.

Because Li was in jail for more than two and a half years, he received credits that satisfied the requirements of his four-year prison term and he won't have to return to custody.

Li's daughter, on June 28 of first-degree murder and premeditated
attempted murder for the attacks on Selma Hill and Eric Hill.

They both face life in prison without the possibility of parole when they are sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Burr on Aug. 29.

In his closing argument in the lengthy case, prosecutor Casey Bates said Rosa Hill and Li went to Selma Hill's home, where Eric Hill and the couple's then-2-year-old daughter also lived, as part of a plot to kidnap the daughter.

Rosa Hill and Eric Hill, who later divorced, were separated at the time, and he had been awarded sole legal custody and 85 percent physical custody of the daughter.

Bates said Selma Hill was killed the morning of Jan. 7, 2009 when confronted by Hill and her mother. When Eric Hill came home later that day with the couple's daughter, he was attacked.

Rosa Hill zapped Selma Hill with a stun gun, beat her with a baton and choked her, then stuffed her body into a trash can and locked it in a backyard shed, according to the evidence in the case.

Bates said notes later recovered by police showed that Rosa Hill and Li called their plan "Operation Custody" and had purchased a cache of weapons that included guns, stun guns, a sword, a crossbow, a knife and a baton.

Ping Li's attorney, Theodore Berry, admitted in Monday's sentencing that Li was in a car outside Selma Hill's home when the attack occurred but said Li was incapable of acting to stop the crime and made "damaging admissions" to police because he is not fluent in English and doesn't express himself well in general due to health issues.

Berry said that Li, who used to work as a courier for Alameda County, now wants to "reconstruct his life" and reconnect with another daughter.

--Bay City News Service