Aside from $2,000 and some pictures, King's entire estate was willed to the
Watchtower Bible Tract Society, said Detective Frank Cavalieri, testifying in
the trial of Damon Hill, who is charged with murdering King in 1996.
Under questioning by Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor John P. Johnston,
Cavalieri, the lead county investigator in the slaying, described combing
through countless leads trying to solve the case.
King was found brutally bludgeoned in her tightly secured home, according to
evidence in the trial, which showed that her front door was secured by two
locks, one of which was a double-keyed deadbolt, and her back door was nailed
and locked shut. With one exception, every window was nailed shut, as well.
The prosecution alleges that Hill, then 16, who was staying in his
girlfriend's third-floor bedroom next door to King on Asbury Avenue, got into
the house by jumping across a two-foot space through the only unsecured window
on the third floor of King's house.
County Detective Steven Padula testified he processed the crime scene for
more than 40 hours, finding nothing of forensic value, no usable fingerprints or
DNA. No blood was found outside the area surrounding King's body, Padula said.
The detective said he removed two feet of debris in the living room, and as he
searched, he found cash stashed all over the house.
The cash, Padula said, was hidden in magazines, beneath the carpet, under the
phone, in all kinds of nooks and crannies. Each stash contained no more than
$100, according to Padula, who said he found more than $2,400.
A man later hired to empty the house for the estate found another $80 to
$100, Padula said.
Cavalieri testified that friends of King described her as thrifty, the type
of person who took doggie bags home from restaurants and would divide bills down
to the last penny. She also was very security-conscious, Cavalieri said, but
active, socializing often with friends from the area.
Trying to find suspects, Cavalieri said he interviewed friends, neighbors,
handymen, cab drivers, letter carriers and anyone else who had contact with the
victim. He went to her funeral and reviewed a list of everyone who attended the
service, he said. He talked to King's stockbroker and financial adviser, as well
as people at her bank, and people who had spoken to the victim on the telephone.
He said he even traveled to a telemarketing company to talk to someone who had
made a sales call.
"I suspected everybody," the detective said. Among those
interviewed early on was Hill.
Cavalieri said he took a formal statement from Hill on March 4, 1996, two
days after King's body was found.
In the presence of Hill's mother at police headquarters, Cavalieri said, he
asked Hill his whereabouts in the days leading up to the discovery. "As I
focused on certain questions, his demeanor became less willing to provide
answers," said Cavalieri, who, at Johnston's direction, demonstrated with
the assistant prosecutor how he and Hill sat facing each other in their
respective chairs. Cavalieri said Hill looked downward when he asked about
Hill's activities the day before the body was found.
"He was evasive," Cavalieri said. "He just wasn't providing
real detailed answers . . . It was like pulling teeth."
The detective said he asked Hill what he knew about what happened, and Hill
said he "heard that the lady next door was killed after she bumped her
head."
But Hill didn't become a real suspect until two years later, Cavalieri said,
when Hill's girlfriend, Mika Taylor, gave investigators incriminating
information.
Also testifying yesterday was Douglas Moss, 20, who was in the county Youth
Detention Center with Hill in 1996. Moss said he asked Hill why he was there.
"He told me he robbed an old white lady," Moss said.
"I said, 'How you do it, man?' " Moss said. He said Hill told him
he got in through a side window.
"I said, 'So, did you kill her?' " Moss testified. "He said,
'No, I just knocked her out.' He didn't know if he killed her or not."
Moss said Hill told him he had taken "a couple of dollars" and had
given Mika Taylor $1,000.
Defense lawyer Robert Eisler accused Moss of conspiring with Taylor's
brother, Nicholas, to set Hill up for the killing.
"You both were in Mrs. King's house, the old white lady's house,"
Eisler said. "She comes to the door with some tea and some bread and
somebody hits her."
The defense lawyer said the woman was lying dead on the floor, and "You
decide someone's got to go down," and that someone is Hill.
But Moss denied this, and said he never went to King's house or the Taylors'
house. And although he had dated Mika Taylor, he said, he hardly knew her
brother.
Published on March 16, 2001