Man Charged With 2009 Indiana Murder
CROWN POINT, Ind. (CBS) -- Prosecutors in Lake County, Ind., have charged a Joliet man in the murder of an acquaintance from East Chicago last year.
Scotty Roy Hills, 30, has been charged in Lake Superior Court with murder in the death of Luis Carrion, who was found face down Dec. 5, 2009, in a fenced back yard in the 4600 block of Ash Avenue. Hills also uses the names Scotty Aguilera and Scottie Aguilera.
Prosecutors say Hills beat Carrion with a brick and choked him to settle an argument over which of them should get the last of the crack they were smoking. Hills allegedly claimed that Carrion started to punch him first.
Police collected two bricks that had a reddish substance, a shovel with a red-colored substance, Carrion's hoodie and other evidence. Carrion died of extensive head injuries due to blunt force trauma and asphyxia with ligature strangulation of the neck.
After Carrion's death, witnesses told police Hills asked different people to put in a good word for him with members of the Latin Kings on his behalf, so "that they would not kill him on the inside, referring to inside prison," court records state. Carrion has a brother who is an alleged gang member.
Hills also told one witness that he and Carrion had been "doing rocks," referring to smoking crack cocaine, and got into a conflict over the last toke. Carrion started to punch him, so he beat him up, they fell, and Hills started to choke him before hitting him with a brick.
Court records indicate Hills was arrested on a parole violation in Illinois. On July 14, investigators obtained a search warrant for a DNA sample and executed it at the Statesville Correctional Facility in Joliet. Forensic analysis by the Indiana State Police shows DNA from Carrion's hoodie matched Hills' DNA profile.
WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser and the Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
