Who Killed the Prosecutor?

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1:52He was an extraordinary guy. Steve Tauser was a prosecutor with a heart. He was really brilliant. He had like a mandate to become a savior in the world almost. His vicious murder stunned law enforcement and the whole community. Whoever committed this crime had something personal against Mr. Tauser. Investigators suspected revenge. An enemy he'd made fighting crime. Possibly a madman that was full of hate. But that's not where the evidence would lead them. The DNA indicates to us quite clearly. Aaron Moriarty asks a difficult question. Was the prosecutor hiding a secret? He was completely obsessed with my son.

2:37Was Steve Tauser just trying to save a life? And in the end, it cost him his own? He was convinced there was no one he couldn't save. A 48 Hours Mystery. Who killed the prosecutor?

3:05911, what's your emergency? I'm happy for somebody maybe dead, maybe a homicide. The calm voice on the phone that Sunday afternoon. I could see a man laying there on a harp. gave no hint of what Bakersfield, California investigators were about to encounter. In Bakersfield, a veteran prosecutor has been found murdered. September the 15th, 2002, Assistant District Attorney Steve Tauser was found dead in his garage. Sheriff Carl Sparks, as well as the entire legal community, was stunned by the murder of Steve Tauser, the Kern County Assistant District Attorney, for almost 20 years. Steve had a lot of friends in this community, and I count myself as one of those friends.

3:56Mr. Stephen Tauser was a very influential individual. When homicide detective John Solis arrived on the scene, This is the point of entry. He knew this was no ordinary investigation. What we found once we made entry inside the garage was Stephen Tauser's body, and he was lying face down. Steve Tauser had been stabbed repeatedly in the head. Whoever killed Mr. Tauser was possibly a madman that was full of hate. Well, of course, I was shocked and very saddened. He was an extraordinary guy. District Attorney Ed Jagels was both Towzer's boss and a longtime friend. He was always loaning or giving money to family members and other people.

4:49He was interested in salvaging people. He was just that kind of guy. In a way, he was more like an uncle. and we looked up to him and, you know, just thought he was the greatest.

5:04Growing up in Northern California, Steve Tauser was the oldest of 14 children, a role model for his sisters. He liked to play with my kids. Tauser, a lifelong bachelor, was Uncle Steve to over 25 nieces and nephews. It's been really hard on the kids. after Steve died. He was a big part of the whole ranch up there. He had like this mandate to become a savior in the world almost, to do something really good and helpful to people. That's why he became the prosecutor known for his big heart. Towser was as much an everyman as he was really brilliant. Janet Crosby was Steve Towser's assistant for six years.

5:52Every time before he went off to handle a huge case, you'd have to make sure he tucked in his shirt and we'd straighten his collar. He was just a regular guy, but he was completely brilliant. The brutality of his murder is just, it's just unthinkable to me. In the years Tauser was with the DA's office, he made many friends and dangerous enemies, criminals he had helped put away. We investigated different avenues, including drug dealers, drug users. Detective Laura Lopez worked the case with John Solis. However this crime was committed and whoever committed it was very, very forceful and very, very angry.

6:33How many weapons? There were three knives that were found. Was there any sign of forced entry? No, no forced entry that we found. That and one other detail quickly changed the focus of the investigation. Empty beer bottles found in Tauser's kitchen suggested that he may have even socialized with his killer or killers before the murder. I was thinking that there was some type of a friendly meeting, and then this particular friendly meeting got out of hand, and the end result that somebody got hurt. Police also say something about the way Tauser was murdered suggested his killer was no stranger.

7:16Based on the injuries, I felt that whoever committed this crime had something personal against Mr. Tauser. And that's when investigators started looking at a rather unlikely suspect, Christopher Hillis. I had information that Mr. Hillis had an ongoing problem with Stephen Tauser regarding Lance Hillis. Lance was Chris Hillis' 22-year-old son. What did you then find inside the house? There was a Bakersfield College identification card. They had the picture of Lance Hillis. There was a backpack from Lance Hillis. So everything's leading me back to Chris Hillis. Chris Hillis is a former cop and an investigator who had worked for Steve Tauser.

8:06Police believe there could be motive in the complex relationship between Hillis, his son, and the prosecutor. One month after the death, Chris Hillis is arrested and charged with the murder of Steve Tauser. The Attorney General's office filed a complaint on an open count of murder with the use of knives against Mr. Chris Hillis. Mr. Hillis, we will enter not guilty plea. The defendant will be remanded to the custody of the sheriff. Thank you. I never had dreamed in a million years that I'd be in custody in a cell looking at the charges I'm looking at. Hillis says he is innocent of murder, claiming that authorities are gunning for him to cover up a dark secret about Steve Tauser.

8:58He was completely obsessed with my son. That's a strong word, obsessed. It was the word that described it. He was obsessed with my son.

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12:03You know, I hope I get acquitted. That's what I hope. What makes the arrest of Chris Hillis so shocking is that the man he's accused of killing had once been a friend. Both men had devoted their lives to law enforcement. Hillis as a cop, Steve Tauser as a prosecutor. They work together at the district attorney's office. Ed Jagels is the DA. He and Chris Hillis were very close friends. But at some point, the friendship turned into a feud over one issue. Chris' 22-year-old son, Lance. You'll learn open your stocking. I miss him terribly. Lance Hillis was Chris's middle son from an earlier marriage.

12:53He's handsome. He's very handsome. Chris is now married to Pam. Was Lance close with his dad? Lance was really close with his father. Those who knew Lance said he was a good student, liked girls, and tried hard to please his dad. You think you're beautiful. Lance was also friends with Steve Towzer, the bachelor who lived just down the street, who would often stop by for family dinner. He started showing an interest in Lance when Lance was, you know, in his mid-teens. Lance's brother Jason, now a probation officer, also remembers Towzer's early friendship with his younger brother. He would bring books over.

13:34He knew Lance liked to read. He would spend time with them and talk to them, you know. But that picture-perfect family fell apart as Lance grew up. When he got on drugs, everything changed. How old was he? I think around 16. Here in Bakersfield, California, the drug methamphetamine is cheap and plentiful. And like too many teenagers here, Lance's infatuation with the drug got out of control. In no time at all, his life took a downward spiral that led to tragedy for him and for everyone who loved him. When he started using this methamphetamine, it just completely took control of him. The latter stages, he was injecting it.

14:24Jason said watching his brother Lance become a meth addict was like watching a car accident in slow motion. It has ruined my brother's life. It has impacted my family, and I'm sure it's impacted a lot of other families in America. And what was that doing to your dad? Oh, it tore him apart. What should I have done? What could I have done?

14:49It's tough. We were heartbroken. We cried, you know, we just wanted him to change and we wanted it so badly. Trying to save Lance became his father's passion. I spent a lot of just talking to him. You know, you have to, you have to reason with him. And I tried to reason with him, a little sugar, a little salt. Lance didn't respond to those things. Drugs just became just too important to him. And so it was not surprising that as Lance's drug problem became serious, Hillis turned to his friend Steve Towzer for help. I remember having a conversation with Mr. Towzer about treatment centers. Towzer jumped at the opportunity to help this young man he had known for years.

15:38But as Towzer got more and more involved, Hillis began to fear that his help was actually hurting Lance. Lance got arrested. He stole a compressor from a business and was arrested in Steve Tauser's car. Both men wanted desperately to help Lance, but disagreed on how. Chris Hillis was convinced the only way to save Lance was to send him to prison to dry out. Steve Tauser disagreed and believed rehab would do the job. He kept saying that Lance is not a drug addict, and I would say Lance is a drug addict. According to Tauser's boss, District Attorney Ed Jagels, Tauser also thought that Chris Hillis may have been part of the problem.

16:27Chris was, as a policeman and apparently as a father, a very rigid individual. And his belief was that the kid had to go to prison and, quote, hit rock bottom. The battle over control escalated, and when Lance left his father's house and needed a place to live, Tauzer began to subsidize him, including paying for an apartment. I think Lance's apartment became somewhat of a safe place to go and use drugs. On a hot summer night in 2001, Chris Hillis went to the apartment to check up on his son. It was real surreal. They had the rigs and the spoons and the drugs and everything. They had already injected.

17:19What was your reaction to that scene? What did you do? I put Lance in handcuffs and I ran the other guy off. Hillis blamed Towzer, believing that giving Lance money and keeping him out of jail was only feeding his son's drug addiction. I called Mr. Tauser and had him come to this apartment and I showed him drugs and I showed him needles. I absolutely begged this man to leave my son alone. Pleased with him. It continued. He crossed the line. But was that motive for murder?

18:17As he passed by, I saw his face, and there was nothing there.

18:25Lance was really, really bad. Really, really bad. He was out of his mind on drugs. Barely out of his teens, Lance Hillis was losing his soul to crystal meth. Quite literally, he was killing himself. Lance was arrested time and again for possession of drugs and stealing. You know, we tried everything. We put him in rehab. Lance was in every drug program here in Kern County. Finally, after no rehab program seemed to stick. I knew he had to hit bottom. I knew he had to start paying some consequences, some serious consequences. Chris felt the best thing for Lance was a prison term. What did Steve Tauser think was right for Lance?

19:10Drug treatment facilities. By late 2000, Lance had tested positive for drugs 13 times. The state probation department recommended that he be sent to state prison for at least a year. An extended period of time in custody, away from drugs, to clean the system out. Lance's brother Jason, also a probation officer, agreed. And I requested the court, I asked the judge, if he would put Lance in custody for some time. But it never happened. Steve Tauser stepped in. It became a pattern. He appeared in court for Lance, lobbied judges for leniency, and convinced a rehab program that Lance had failed to take him back.

19:56Towser's office wasn't prosecuting any of Lance's cases, but he was one of the most powerful people in the Kern County judicial system. So people here in Bakersfield were beginning to wonder whether Towser was misusing that power. You had a member of the probation department complaining. You had the family members complaining. Towser's boss, District Attorney Ed Jagels. Wouldn't that have been better for Steve Tauser to back off? Why didn't he? Yes, it would have been much better for my office if he hadn't done what he had a perfect right to do. That was Steve Tauser. He was convinced there was no one he couldn't help.

20:35There was no one he couldn't save. Why did Steve Tauser risk his career and reputation to help another man's son? Obviously, he can't answer that question, but Towzer did explain some of it in a personal journal found after his death. In it, Towzer wrote, Although I was single and had no children of my own, Lance seemed like a son to me. My dream, like a parent, was to watch Lance walk across the stage of some college to accept his degree. He was completely obsessed with my son. Is it possible that Towzer just viewed your son really the way you did, you know, as a father? It's my opinion, no. Towzer even gave Lance a room in his own home.

21:26But as Lance's addiction deepened, even Towzer began to wonder whether his way was the right way. At what point was I just being conned? How long could I go on accepting one failure after another? Shortly after writing this entry, Tauzer had his answer. Initially the call came out of a green Ford Focus had been stolen from the Kentucky Fried Chicken. On August 7, 2002, Lance Hillis, after failing another rehab program, stole a car outside this Kentucky Fried Chicken.

22:18He was doing at least 65 or 70. I slammed on my brakes. Therese Rollins was on the road that night. Lance almost ran into her. I don't know. I'll never forget the look on his face.

22:41I would describe it as a head-on. Lance Christopher Hillis, age 22, died instantly. He didn't even try to miss the bus. He didn't hit his brakes. He didn't do anything. According to police toxicology reports, he was high on meth when he was killed.

23:03When you lose a child, you have a lot of guilt. What should I have done? What could I have done? You know, I could blame myself. Do you blame Steve Tauser? Certainly to a degree. God's going to hold him accountable. I believe that. And one month later, when Steve Tauser was discovered brutally stabbed to death, Chris Hillis was the logical suspect. Chris Hillis was arrested at his business this morning. After Chris Hillis was arrested, the local newspaper, the Bakersfield Californian, began to question Tauser's involvement with Chris' son.

23:58The fact is that Steve Tauser went beyond where he should have in terms of his office and gave this kid breaks that most people are not going to get. Herb Benham is a columnist for the Bakersfield Californian. As soon as the story began to unfold, the rumor was that Towzer was involved with this young man romantically. The allegations of a sexual relationship between Towzer and Lance Hillis were being fueled in the local papers by Chris Hillis. Mr. Towzer was a homosexual. He was abusing my son. You mean physically? I think so. Sexually. The allegations of abuse didn't sit too well in the Bakersfield community.

24:52This is not a town that's tolerant of homosexuality. People in this intense family town looked at it and went, well, now I'm having trouble with this. What I don't like is the implication that Steve Tauser was some kind of a sexual predator. I have no information that he ever was. Scotty Wallace was a close friend of Steve Tauser's. The notion that he was a sexual predator, that's bad enough. The notion that he might be gay, that's a whole other issue. He was part of our family. I'm certain if he had any kind of inclinations toward being gay or something, he would have said something to me. There was nothing sinister about Steve Tauser.

25:33He didn't have a secret life. His life was an open book, and most of it was down here. The scandal side of the story made headlines, but the bottom line is this. In more than a year and a half since Towser's death, neither the media nor Kern County Police found any evidence that he was involved in a sexual relationship with Lance Hillis. During our investigation, we did investigate that angle and could turn up nothing. We never received anonymous phone calls from ex-lovers involved in that lifestyle with Mr. Towser. Steve Towser was problemed up. He was wired strange and he was not normal. Towser was well aware of how Hillis felt about him.

26:18Chris had become my sworn enemy. He told people he feared there was an unnatural relationship between Lance and me. But if he knew Lance, he would have known that was not true. He hated me because I helped Lance. Is it fair to say you hate Steve Tauser? I don't like using that term, hate. Prosecutors who are handling this case, that you had the best reason to want Steve Tauser dead. Did you kill him? No, I didn't kill him.

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