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Witness: Airman said he killed fellow airman

BOLLING AIR FORCE BASE, Washington, D.C. — Prosecutors trying Airman Calvin Hill for murder unveiled one of their most damning witnesses yet Wednesday: a discharged Army soldier who testified that Hill confessed to killing Airman 1st Class Ashley Turner.

Cyrus Hughes, 20, told jurors that Hill admitted to stabbing a girl in the neck, beating her head with a weight and dragging her up a flight of stairs.

Hughes was in pre-trial confinement last year in Mannheim, Germany, for drunkenly crashing a rented Jaguar and going AWOL. Hill, bunking nearby, was facing charges he stole $2,700 from Turner using her ATM card and later murdered her in a cover-up scheme.

Hughes corroborated much of the prosecution’s version of events, telling the court Hill said “his girlfriend would vouch for him and say he was in the room” while Hill slipped out to kill Turner in the Keflavik Naval Air Station dormitory they shared. Hill and Turner were former friends assigned to the 56th Rescue Squadron in Iceland.

Despite the power of Hughes testimony, his credibility was repeatedly attacked by Hill’s three-person Air Force defense team. Several of his official statements are wildly inconsistent, but none appeared to be part of a judicial plea deal.

Hughes admitted lying to commanders after the drunken car crash, claiming a suicide attempt. He also conceded to rescinding his statement about Hill’s confession when defense lawyers visited him at his Independence, La., home.

Maj. Stephen Ganter and Capt. Jason Kellhofer — with an investigator not on Hill’s defense team — drove to Hughes’ uncle’s house in March. “We were in the projects where I stay at,” Hughes told the jury in his deep Louisiana mumble.

“When ya’ll came, everybody took off running,” Hughes said. “Two white guys come in the projects? They thought ya’ll was police.”

Hughes was unclear in explaining why, sitting in his uncles’ living room, he agreed to a new statement clearing Hill of the confession. The investigator repeatedly called him a liar and “disrespected me,” he said, and his family’s eavesdropping on the conversation made him uncomfortable.

“If I knew from the get-go I could have told ya’ll to leave,” Hughes said, “I’d have told ya’ll to leave.”

Hughes was detained after missing four arranged flights to Washington, D.C., in April to testify. He is jobless and carless, he told attorneys, and couldn’t make it to the nearest airport, roughly 100 miles away.

Regardless, when he did finally appear in court, Hughes returned to his original position: Hill confessed twice in jail to killing a girl set to testify against him for stealing money. The idea came to Hill, Hughes said, when a lawyer told him he’d go free if Turner couldn’t testify.

After a dizzying back-and-forth in cross-examination, the prosecution attorney again asked Hughes the core question in a slow, measured tone before returning to his seat.

“Isn’t it true that Airman Hill said he stabbed a girl in the back of the neck with a knife and hit her in the head with a weight?” Luttrell asked.

“Right,” Hughes said with a quick nod.

Previous stories:

* Investigators probed at murder trial of airman

* Jurors shown images from crime scene

* Murder trial testimony focuses on blood spot

* Airman’s defense says others may be murderer

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Airman Hill murder trial