Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
87.year old floyd bhill and his wife 72 year old vera hill.
live alone in a home on county road 53 i Gwyn. alabama.
but some of their adult grandchildren that lived neatby frequently checked on them.
vera had been married 55 years
they were known to hold yard sales frequently to pass the time.
vera was in poort health and floyd was carring for her by administering for to her various prescription of drugs.
floyd was known by employees of the local Amoco service sation.
where a man named jamie ray mills was formely employed. and where floyd known to carry large sums of money often removed a large watt of cash from his pocket to pay for gas .
during the evening hours of june 24th just as it was starting to get dark outside , angela jones went to her grandparents to check on them after calling serveral times during the day. and not being able to reach them on the telephone . the cars were there so they appeared to be home but the doors were locked and and nobody would come to any of the doors when she knocked.
when she knocked she angela became worried and she contacted the police departement to do a wellness check at the home.
when she knocked she angela became worried and she contacted the police departement to do a wellness check at the home.
the officer then used his cell phone to dial the home and even though the call went throught just fine , there were no sound of a ringing telephone inside the house and he found that strange.
the officer then went to search around the property and looked into a storage shed where the hills kept most of their yard sale items .
there he discovered the bodies of floyd and veras hill on the floor and a lot of blood around them . floyd was deceased but he saw vera’s arm move and she was breathing
he immediately called for an ambulance and she was transported to winfield hospital.
upon conducting a search of the hills home it was discovered that floyd’s wallet veras’s purse and a green fishing tackle box containing vera hills medication had been taken. and the telephone line was cut after being treated for significant brain injuries . vera hill died,three months later on september 12th 2004.
on the night of the crime,investigators interviewed the hills nextdoor neighbor jennifer yaden
and were informed that she had notice a white late model two doors sedan going by her house several times earlier that day.she also observed this same car parked in the hills driveway
police officers informed the detectives that a local man named jamie mills drove a car matching that description. in a town with a population of only 2,000 residents that probably wasn’t so difficult to figure out .
a patrol unit was sent to the resident of jamie and his wife JoAnne mills. but it appeared no one was home.
they then had surveillance placed on the home.
the following day officers obeserved jamie and joanne mills leaving their residence
and got inside a small white 1990 two door nissan it was the same car seen by floyd and vera hill’s neighbor. the police officers blocked the driveway and jamie mills was transported to the police station for questioning.
jamie mills denied any knwoledge of the hills incident and stated that he and joanne were in brilliant alabama all day on june 24th,looking at houses and then went visit his father in hamilton alabama.
where he and JoAnne spent the night.he also denied knowing or ever meeting floyd hill .
which investigators would later learn as very unlikely since mills worked at the gas station where floyd was a regular customer.
investigators then went to the mills home to question his wife , JoAnne mills hwo has had plenty of legal troubles ofher own related to drugs in the past.
JoAnn gave consent for the detectives to search their home and the car. that was a big mistake.
in the car detectives observed the green fishing tackle box that was describedto them as containing vera’s medication. they also found a large duffle bag splattered with blood.
JoAnn was arrested . Jamie mills was also arrested and charged with capital murder. that duffel bag in the car are also containe floyd hill’s driver’s license other documents beloning to the hills and all the murder weapons with blood and hair on them proved by DNA as coming from floyd and vera hill.
a machete
a hammer.
and a lug nut tire tool
also in the bag was a large heavy cinder block that did not come from the home of the victims. that item was placed in the bag by the perpetrators with the intent of sinking that bag in a body of wather somwhere.
but they obviously didn’t know police were going to be on to them so quickly and never got the a chance to sink the duffel bag
JoAnn mills would later say that , that is where they were headed when
the police blocked their driveway.
JoAnn mills would later testify that on june 23rd 2004 the day before the murders
she and jamie mills had stayed up all night smoking methamphetamine the following day
later in the afternoon they went to webster’s market to buy cigarettes, later they stopped in a parking lot to talk to JoAnn’s cousin for a whilee and after leaving there
they went to the home of floyd and vera hill,she said that her husband told her that he was going there to get money .
according to JoAnne her husband and floyd hill obviously knew each other and referred to each other by first name of upon entering the house.
after entering jamei mills attempted to make several phone calls from the house phone while JoAnne spoke with the elderly couple.
JoAnnesays that vera hill wanted to show her some of their yard sale items that were stored in the shed. because it was raining floyd went to unlock the shed door and opened it while vera , jamie mills and JoAnne waited on the porch.
floyd then returned and gave the women the umbrella.floyd later followed them all back to the shed.
after the hills had shown the mills their yard sale items jamie mills continued to talk to floyd hill in the storage.shed
whole the two women walked back to the porch
JoAnn mills testified that she heard a loud noise and saw her husband jamie mills with something raised over his shoulderand he was swinging it JoAnne followed the older women vera back to the shed to see what was happening there upon entering the shed
JoAnne saw floyd hill lying on the ground and she saw jamie mills hit vera hill in the back of the head with a hammer.
when vera hill attempted to get back up hestrck her again.
JoAnne stated that she stood with her eyes closed as she listened to the sound of jamie mills repeatedly striking the elderly couple floyd and vera hill.
jamie mills then handed to her a bloody hammer a tire tool and a
machete. and they exited the shed.
inside the hills home they went throughout the house and took the green tackle box with vera’s medication,floyd’s wallet.
vera’s purse about 140 dollars in cash and some other items.
and then returned to their home oncounty road 83.
it appears they had locked all the doors to the victim’sh ouse because that is how it was found.
afterward jamie mills called a drug dealer named benji came home ocer to their home on county road 83, and mills purchased some pain pillsfrom him.
sometime later they wet to jamie’s fathers house in hamilton alabama to play dominoes and spent the night.
the only thing JoAnne that said that matched what jamie mills had toldt detectives earlier
3 years later in 2007 jamie mills was convicted and a jury voted 11 to 1 to sentence him to death.
JoAnne mills received a life sentence but she will be considered for parole in decemberof the year 2027. a little more than 3 years from now.
even though the previous execution that took place in alabama was done with the use of nitrogen gas,
the state is set to use drugs when they
execute jamie millls .