Sunday, March 26, 2000
Debbie Hill is free at last
BY PETER BRONSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Yellow ribbons that were tied to fences, mailboxes and tree trunks in three counties are mostly gone now, frayed, bleached and erased by five years of wind, rain and passing seasons.
They still shine on brightly in the front yard of Charlotte and James Slemp's house on Wards Corner Road in Loveland. But Mrs. Slemp can hardly wait to take them down when her daughter comes home at last.
Debbie Hill is finally getting out of prison on May 8.
“It's going to be a halleluiah day when we can cut those little suckers down,” said Mrs. Slemp after she heard the news on Wednesday. “I don't think my feet have touched the ground. We've been laughing and crying.
“It's been a long five years.”
Debbie Hill is the woman who shot a stalker on Nov. 2, 1994. Omar Pierson walked up to her car on a country road, yelling at her, and she emptied a .38-caliber Lady Smith & Wesson revolver through her car window and killed him.
She told me about it when I visited her in prison. “He was yelling, "I'm telling you, you listen to me . . .' I was terrified. I reached into the floor of the passenger side, pulled my gun from the case and fired through the driver's side window.”
It was the usual stalker story — if there is such a thing. She had dated Mr. Pierson, a truck driver and hired hand who helped out on her farm after her husband died of cancer. But when she tried to break it off, he began calling non-stop, threatening her and her family, driving by constantly, following her. There was an attempted break-in at her isolated house; footprints outside her bedroom window. Mr. Pierson was seen near her son's school.
A police report from one of her numerous stalking and harassment complaints said: “Victim states that he said he was going to kill her, the dog and the family. Suspect stated that he was going to send someone to her house and have them rape her. Suspect is on strong medication and has a mental history.”
But somehow, police failed to serve the warrants against Mr. Pierson, who was linked to drug trafficking and a police informant.
A report prepared by her lawyer said: “At this time, the Hamilton Township Police advised Mrs. Hill to keep a gun with her at all times, to actually carry it from room to room.”
She moved home with her parents after the attempted break-in, then had to check into a motel when he threatened to dynamite her parents' home.
When she returned to her own home for some clothing one night, he drove by again. She followed him — her big mistake — and they met on a deserted country road and she killed him.
Because she followed her stalker, her claim of self-defense was undermined. The prosecutor in the case, Robin Piper, called her a “grand manipulator.”
So she pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon, expecting to be released after six months. Instead, Warren County Detective Mark Duvelius told the Parole Board she should serve at least two years. “Hill did not show remorse,” he wrote.
Mr. Pierson's family defended him fiercely and opposed parole. The parole board ignored bags of mail pleading for her release. Her deal for six months evaporated. Two years turned into three, then four, then five.
Hamilton Township Police Chief Eugene Duvelius, the county detective's brother, was in the middle of the stalking story, with his office just a mile from the Hill farm. He nailed it four years ago.
“Debbie Hill dotted every "i' and crossed every "t' and did everything she was told to do,” he said. “But the system failed her. I worry about her son. First losing his dad, now his mom. She should be with her son.”
Finally, she will be. Travis, who was 13 when his dad died, and 15 when his mother went to prison, is now 20. “He always says "Don't cry,' ” said his grandmother, Mrs. Slemp. “Whenever something bad happened, he'd say, "It's OK, don't cry.' ”
For every ribbon still clinging to a fence post there have been thousands of prayers from churches in Warren, Hamilton and Clermont counties. Hardly a day has gone by without someone asking about Debbie, Mrs. Slemp said. But for the past year, the family has been quiet. A lawyer warned that more protests might antagonize the parole board.
Maybe it worked. But Mrs. Slemp has her own theory: “Prayer has had such a profound effect, I just know it. I find that just so astounding.”
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call (513) 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
