WORCESTER - Using a chart to illustrate the location of the wounds, a pathologist testified Wednesday that Cherise D. Hill died as a result of 19 sharp force injuries, including one that cut across her carotid artery.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Mindy Hull, who performed the autopsy on the 31-year-old Ms. Hill, was among the final witnesses to testify at the Worcester Superior Court trial of Pedro Solis, the man accused of fatally stabbing the mother of three on Murray Avenue on the morning of Dec. 2, 2015. Prosecutors allege that Mr. Solis, 28, of 45 Grand St. killed Ms. Hill because she had seen him stab a man days earlier and he feared she would report him to authorities.
Dr. Hull, who said she had performed about 2,500 autopsies and who was recently named the state's chief medical examiner, testified that Ms. Hill's injuries included both stab wounds and incisions to her head, neck, torso and upper extremities. Ms. Hill also suffered scrapes on her forehead and torso and bruising on her right arm and right leg, according to the pathologist.
Extreme atrocity or cruelty is one of the prosecution's two theories of first-degree murder in the case. The other is that the killing of Ms. Hill was premeditated.
Also testifying as a prosecution witness Wednesday was Ms. Hill's mother, Priscilla Walker, who had begun to cry and had to be escorted from the courtroom earlier as photos taken at her daughter's autopsy were displayed for the jury on a monitor.
Ms. Walker described her oldest child, one of three siblings, as an "overachiever" and gifted singer who was a straight-A student and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston on a full scholarship. Ms. Walker said Ms. Hill was later found to have bipolar disorder, a diagnosis that cut short her musical career and sent her life on a "downhill spiral" that included drug use.
Despite her problems, Ms. Hill was "still a good girl," according to her mother, who said her daughter always remained upbeat and in good spirits.
"That's why it's so hard for me to believe why would somebody want to hurt her," she told the jury.
Ms. Walker said she last saw Ms. Hill two days before she was killed, when her daughter came to her house for a visit and the two "laughed and talked."
Assistant District Attorneys Brett F. Dillon and Anthony H. Melia rested the prosecution's case after Ms. Walker's testimony. Mr. Solis' lawyer, Adam T. Narris, rested the defense's case without calling any witnesses.
The slaying of Ms. Hill was captured on surveillance video that showed her being attacked by two masked men, one of them making repeated stabbing motions. Kevin Miranda, 20, of 33 Wellington St., was also charged with Ms. Hill's murder, but entered into a cooperation agreement with the prosecution and testified against Mr. Solis, telling the jury Mr. Solis wiped blood from his knife after the attack on Ms. Hill. In exchange for his testimony, Mr. Miranda is expected to be sentenced to 18 to 20 years in state prison on a reduced charge of manslaughter.
Mr. Narris told the jury in his opening statement Tuesday that Mr. Solis had been charged with a crime he did not commit and suggested Ms. Hill's killer was Luis Melendez-Rivas, a Worcester man who had previously been charged with her murder. Prosecutors dropped the murder charge against Mr. Melendez-Rivas last year. His lawyer, Brian E. Murphy, said at that time that a witness had misidentified Mr. Melndez-Rivas as one of Ms. Hill's assailants, but that new evidence showed he played no part in the killing.
Closing arguments by the lawyers and Judge Shannon Frison's instructions to the jury on the law were scheduled to precede the start of deliberations Thursday morning.