At the Hands of a Stranger (23 page)

Although Gary Hilton continued to talk for another hour, getting on the podium to give evaluations of police procedures, the sociology of homosexuality and bisexuality, and mind over matter, he said nothing that was relevant to the investigation.

The two GBI special agents were exhausted from listening to his disheveled thoughts and guiding him toward more useful things rather than wade through his personal gibberish. They had learned about Hilton's travels, where he was during various time periods, the cars that he drove, and his philosophy about killing kidnapped people.

He had inadvertently strengthened suspicions that slaughtering people was not new to him:
“You either kill them, or you get caught.”

There was a feeling of angst in the Dawson County Superior Court at 1:30
P.M
. on Thursday, January 31, 2008, that seemed to deplete the oxygen for those who had gathered for the sentencing phase of Hilton's murder trial. The grief had clearly wounded Meredith Emerson's parents and friends to a degree that was impossible to describe. They were suffering as they realized that no punishment would ever bring their daughter back.

Susan and David Emerson already knew what the sentence would be and had accepted it so they could give their daughter's remains a proper memorial and resting place and get on with life as best they could. Both knew there would always be an empty place in their heart, which would never be filled.

Lee Darragh, Dawson County district attorney, represented the state. Darragh, a middle-aged man, with silver hair and an elegance of movement, looked as if he had been assigned his role by central casting for a movie production company. H. Bradford Morris Jr. and Robert R. McNeill, who were seasoned trial lawyers from the public defender's office, represented Gary Hilton.

The gallery was packed with people—most attendees were there to offer support to Meredith Emerson's family and friends. Newspaper and television news reporting on the race to find Emerson alive had captured the hearts of residents in the area and they had come to love the young woman. She was one of their own: she had lived and worked in Georgia and had graduated from the University of Florida.

Georgia trials are divided into two parts: a penalty phase, where the jury hears evidence, deliberates, and renders a verdict; it is then followed by a sentencing phase, where interested parties can address the court to offer mitigating or aggravating circumstances. Mitigating circumstances are meant to show the defendant in a favorable light and sway the sentence recommended by a jury or imposed by a judge. Aggravating circumstances are those that show the crime in its raw, unadulterated cruelty, in the hope of winning a harsher sentence.

There was no one present to offer mitigating circumstances for Gary Hilton.

Superior court judge Bonnie C. Oliver called the court to order and told Darragh to proceed.

 

DA Lee Darragh told the judge that the grand jury of Dawson County had returned a true bill of indictment earlier that morning against Hilton for murder. He said that the people of Georgia, Dawson County, embodied by the grand jury, “charge and accuse Gary Michael Hilton with the offense of murder” and that “on the fourth day of January 2008, did unlawfully and with malice aforethought cause the death of Meredith Hope Emerson … through the commission of a forcible felony … aggravated battery, by causing blunt-force trauma to her head.”

The district attorney told the judge that Hilton had entered a plea of guilty earlier in the day and that it was witnessed by McNeill, one of Hilton's public defenders. Darragh had also signed the indictment, as did Hilton and Morris, Hilton's other attorney. After going through the legal formalities, Darragh said he would present the indictment to the court.

“Your Honor, the defendant has agreed to enter a plea of guilty in return for a recommendation from the state that he be sentenced to life imprisonment, and has completed a plea petition stating so,” Darragh continued. He asked the judge to allow him to present facts that supported the plea of guilty.

Judge Oliver consented.

The district attorney told the judge that Hilton regularly visited national and state parks and that he was seen the day “before the kidnapping and eventual murder” of Emerson. Hilton was seen on the Appalachian Trail, Darragh said, where Emerson had eventually been kidnapped. Hilton had intended to kidnap a woman he followed and had actually talked with, but the plan didn't materialize because she was with several other people.

“And on the next day, Tuesday, January 1, 2008, at about one
P.M
., Ms. Emerson arrived at the Byron Herbert Reece Memorial Trailhead parking area in Union County,” he said. “There were witnesses who saw him at that location. There were also witnesses who observed Mr. Hilton following Ms. Emerson on the Appalachian Trail at different intervals. One gentleman was a former law enforcement officer and noted that the defendant was carrying a large knife and a police-style baton on his belt.

“Later that afternoon that witness found two water bottles, a dog leash, and some dog treats, along with a police-style baton, lying on the edge of the Reece Trail,” Darragh continued. “He believed that the baton was dropped by this defendant and became concerned for Ms. Emerson's well-being, and suspected a struggle at that location.”

Darragh said that later investigation showed there was a struggle between Hilton and Emerson. “The defendant … was able to place her under his control eventually and took her down the trail back to where her car was and where his van was,” Darragh said. He added that Hilton took some ATM cards, identification cards, and other items that were in Emerson's car and placed them in his vehicle.

“Throughout the next couple of days, Mr. Hilton basically rode Ms. Emerson around to various locations throughout North Georgia, seeking to get money from her ATMs,” the district attorney continued. “During this time Ms. Emerson often gave him incorrect PIN numbers and he was unsuccessful. Although it is unclear, I would like to think it is because she was doing everything she could to insure that perhaps he would get caught during his efforts to use the ATMs.”

Darragh talked about how witnesses saw Hilton on January 4 along the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area. Eventually, he said, Hilton was caught in DeKalb County, where he was trying to dispose of evidence, but he wasn't successful at that attempt.

“Evidence from his van included items containing blood and other items that were connected with Ms. Emerson,” Darragh said. “Those items, through examination, DNA comparison, proved to contain some blood of Ms. Emerson. That was on Friday, January the fourth, when he was finally arrested that evening.”

At the time, Darragh said, Hilton was arrested on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear that had been issued by the U.S. Northern District of Georgia, and was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals. The next day Hilton was charged with kidnapping with bodily injury, and on Monday, January 7, 2008, Hilton was denied bond in Union County. Plea bargains were started almost immediately by the Union County district attorney and the public defender who represented Hilton at the time. Under the plea bargain Gary Hilton agreed to show the police where Emerson's remains were located—if the state would not ask for the death penalty. He told the court about Emerson's decapitation after death “for forensic purposes” and the defendant's attempt to destroy evidence, all to make it harder to identify the body. Darragh explained all of this to show that the state had followed all required procedures in striking the plea bargain and that Hilton understood the consequences. Hilton and his public defenders acknowledged that the defendant was fully cognizant of the ramifications of his plea bargain.

 

Following DA Darragh's remarks, Judge Oliver had a few questions for the defense.

“Were all the facts and possible defenses discussed with Mr. Hilton?” she asked.

“At great length, Your Honor,” Robert McNeill answered.

“Is there any meritorious defense for Mr. Hilton?”

Both McNeill and Morris said they weren't aware of any. The public defenders also answered in the affirmative when the judge asked whether or not Hilton was competent. Having been satisfied that no stone had been left unturned that could result in a mistrial or an appeal, Judge Oliver told Hilton she had a series of questions for him.

Hilton asked, “Should I stand?”

The judge told him she had already informed the defense that he could remain seated. She asked for Hilton's full name, age, if he could read and write, and whether he was under the influence of any kind of drug, alcohol, or intoxicant. His answers consisted largely of three-word sentences: “No, Your Honor” or “Yes, Your Honor.”

“Do you now suffer from any mental or emotional disability?”

“No, Your Honor.”

Hilton answered in the affirmative when he was asked if he fully understood the plea bargain, confession, the nature of the charges against him, and his right to plead not guilty. He acknowledged that he had a right to a trial and that no threats, force, pressure, or any other type of intimidation had been made to persuade him to enter a guilty plea. Hilton answered yes, when he was asked if he understood he would receive a sentence of life in prison; and he said he was satisfied with his lawyers and how his case was presented.

“Did you, in fact, commit the unlawful acts set forth in the indictment against you to which you are proposing to enter a plea?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“Do you now want to enter a plea of guilty?”

Hilton said he did.

“And how do you plead to the charge of the murder in Dawson County, Georgia, on the fourth day of January 2008 with malice aforethought causing the death of Meredith Hope Emerson?”

“Guilty, Your Honor.”

Finished with her questions to Hilton, Judge Oliver directed her attention to Darragh and asked him if he knew the average length of time that it takes in Georgia to get a death penalty case to trial. Darragh said that it usually takes two to three years after an arrest to bring a case to trial, and the average amount of time spent on death row until execution is about twelve years.

The judge asked if Emerson's family was opposed to the plea bargain. They supported the arrangement, Lee Darragh told Judge Oliver.

“Their beloved daughter went first missing only thirty days ago,” he said, “and here we are before the court closing this matter.

“This is a situation that will not be over for them by any stretch of the imagination,” he continued, “but through the acceptance of this plea, they can get this legal aspect of what has occurred behind them …. Before I made the actual offer … I discussed it with the Emersons very thoroughly.”

Darragh said a life sentence without parole meant that Hilton would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Judge Oliver removed her glasses for a moment and looked at Hilton through narrowed eyes and then she spoke.

“Because we are a civilized society and our system of laws has many protections and safeguards built in to prevent injustice in even the most heinous of crimes, I will consider this plea.” She told Hilton that the community and most of the state would consider his immediate execution as the only satisfactory penalty.

“Even the most tenderhearted among us would consider your actions deserving of the severest punishment,” she said. Because it was so important for the victim's family and friends to recover her remains, Judge Oliver said she would accept the plea bargain.

Because he was sixty-one years old, with a life expectancy of seventeen more years, the judge told Hilton, it would be unlikely that he would live long enough to be executed if the death penalty was ordered.

Hilton told her there was nothing he wanted to say before the judge passed sentence. Hilton's sentence was to spend the rest of his life in a Georgia prison without the possibility of parole.

 

Following the sentence, Meredith's parents were allowed to address the court. They said in part:

“We stand before you as brokenhearted parents, having lost our beloved daughter to the vicious murder committed by Mr. Hilton,” David Emerson said. “Our days are filled with tears, blank stares, and we constantly struggle through each day. Meredith was our shining light in our lives and now we are left with a hole in our hearts that will not heal.”

Their daughter had been an inspiration for good and had treated everyone with respect and dignity. “The out-pouring of love and support from friends and loved ones and countless numbers of strangers is a testimony to how Meredith touched so many people in a positive way, both in life and death,” David Emerson said.

As a father who had lost his daughter so early in her life, Emerson said he would feel the grief and pain forever. Gone was his joyful anticipation of walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding or holding one of the children whom she now would never have.

“I feel that no punishment for Mr. Hilton is too great,” he said. David noted that we provide food and shelter and protection for criminals such as Hilton instead of allowing the family to administer what it considered justice.

“I only pray that he suffers immensely for his heinous acts and that even his fellow inmates recognize his evil and malevolence … and treat him with appropriate measures.”

Barely able to hold back tears, David listened to his wife, Susan, speak to Hilton. Before addressing him, she told the judge that Meredith's brother, Mark, had found it too difficult to pen his own statement. She was also speaking for him, she said.

Susan Emerson told the judge that there was “no such thing as justice” in this case. Nothing would bring their daughter back. She did not regret that the death penalty had been taken out of consideration, Susan said. That would have been an easy way out for him; instead, she hoped that “he should stay alive and slowly rot.”

She mocked Hilton's pretense of being a soldier on perpetual maneuvers:

“He is nothing more than a bully and a weak-minded man on the run,” she observed. “He fancies himself a survivalist, while anyone can see he is a scared little man on the run. He is the fool who goes through life too ignorant to realize he is a fool, and Meredith has exposed him.”

The grieving and angry mother said that her daughter was one of the few people who would forgive him, if given the chance.

“I have no doubt that her goodness and light intimidated the hell out of him, so he struck out in fear,” Emerson said. “I'm sure he thinks he snuffed out her light, but the truth is, she is stronger and brighter than ever, while he has been diminished.”