Dystiny Myers murder suspect was a police informant
December 11, 2012
Dystiny Myers
By KAREN VELIE
One of the people accused of participating in the violent murder of Dystiny Myers was an informant for the Santa Maria Police Department gang suppression unit, a detective testified on Monday.
Ty Michael Hill is facing the death penalty while his four co-defendants are facing murder charges in the 2010 murder of Myers.
Santa Maria Police detective Dan Cohen testified that he had dealt with Hill as a victim, an informant and a suspect. Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera declined Hill’s defense attorney Bill McLennan’s numerous attempts to get the detective to explain why he referred to Hill as a victim amid prosecutor’s objections.
Prosecutors also submitted Hill’s rap-sheet, which included 14 arrests.
In the end, the judge denied all of McLennan’s motions to suppress comment made by a co-defendant of Hills, Cody Miller.
In 2010, firefighters found the badly burned body of Myers, 15, in a shallow grave near Santa Margarita. She was found hogtied with her legs bound behind her, a glove stuffed in her mouth, one of her eyes plucked out, sweat pants tied around her throat and her hands duck taped across her chest.
Following the murder of Myers, Miller, 20, of Fresno was digging a grave to place the body in when his former cohorts turned on him and began beating him in the face with a shovel. Miller escaped and was taken to a local hospital where he received facial surgery, had his jaw wired shut and was treated for his burns.
At the time, Miller told firefighters and investigators that Hill had raped him with a baseball bat before the murder.
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