i dare you to shoot me. gary shot him. in the legs or the stomach. the lower part of the stomach. a junior high girlfriend testified that gary wasn t a bad guy back in the day. he was funny and outgoing and smart. the defense rests. once the defense rested, willie megs called his rebuttal witness, a clinical psychologist to revisit the essential issues. did mr. gary hilton know right from wrong? my opinion is, yes, he clearly knew right from wrong and clearly he knew the criminal nature of his conduct. in my opinion, he is a psychopath. that s what generated the murders and nothing else. the attorneys made their final appeal to the jurors. i m going to ask every one of you individually to go back in that jury room and vote to recommend that gary hilton be put to it death. on behalf of mr. hilton, i m asking all of you collectively
because it frightened people. he seemed to enjoy showing himself in that matter, that ghoulish presentation? yes. he was very animated, very talkative. tabor fired hilton who then turned around and claimed tabor owed him money. by mid-summer 2007, the siding guy said he feared for his safety. he finally threatened to kill me. he made it very clear. tabor took those threats seriously. i immediately armed myself with a glock 9 millimeter and an ar-15 assault rifle. started driving a rental car so he wouldn t know what car i was in. he was your boogieman. absolutely. to not know what was happening, somebody maybe assassinate you. when the former boss went to the police with his story, it seemed to do the trick. within a day or two, he had packed p up all of his belongings and moved on. put all of his stuff in the van and took off. yes. john tabor was relieved to see hilton in his rear-view mirror but he was nonetheless puzzled by the change that had
a picture of hilton s dog dandy, exhibit 37, was looking to be the state s key piece of evidence. quite sure that s the dog. another witness recount add creepy conversation with hilton at a country store. and then he said isn t it bad about that girl that was murdered? and i said, yes, it is. he said, well, you look like her. and i said, well, i don t think so. another testified about being flagged down by hilton on one of the forest roads. hilton was looking for a jump-start for his van. i m an old southern boy. he looked like a little yankee man to me. and hunters, too, identified the old guy with the nice dog. he was acting rea weird. he was flagging us down like it was an emergency or something. what the prosecution couldn t tell the jury was exactly how sheryl had died. a county medical examiner had to work with severed remains that had been exposed to the elements he thought for at least a week or more. are you able to tell this jury how this woman died? no,
in the back of his vehicle and then proceeded to steal her bank cards. from beneath the front seat of her car. hilton drove off heading 12 miles north to an atm in blairsville, georgia. he told detectives meredith had given him her p.i.n. numbers back on blood mountain. did meredith suspect it would be all over for her if she gave him the correct numbers? in any case, she had given him bad information. and it done work? it didn t work. she s still telling me it s going to work. must be a problem with the bank. hilton next tried to use meredith s cards at a bank 50 miles south in gainesville, georgia. again, no dice. he made camp that night with his captive in a remote spot in the forest. the next morning, hilton attempted to use meredith s bank card still again at an atm in canton, georgia. nothing. they returned to his hidden campsite.
hilton s dog dandy had been at his side since he started working for tabor. the former boss had come to regard hilton as a hair-triggered nut case. he often told stories of going to parks with his dog and he would end up in altercations with other pet owners. it it was always the same story. he would reprimand the other dog owners behavior, then the other dog owner would get angry at him and verbally or physically assault him. so he was always the victim. for the first nine years hilton worked at his siding business. tabor recalled him as a good employee. then something seemed to snap. things started to change quite dramatically starting in 2007. what happened then? he just wasn t doing any work. i decided to go and just see what was going on over there. it was a very bizarre scene. how so? his physical appearance was quite different. he immediately smiled to show he was missing several teeth and he went on to say he took a pair of pliers and removed some of his teeth.