Remembering Kerri Hintermeister

 

A Tragic Ending

Although she was only 11 years old, Kerri Hintermesiter loved to teach. On March 24, 1984, Kerri and her friends were playing “school,” as they often did in their quiet suburban neighborhood. Kerri was the teacher. Also playing with the girls that day was Bradford Gill and his daughters. Gill, 27, was a Sunday school teacher and the father of four young children. He was pretending to be the “principal.” Kerri needed a chalkboard and told her friends she was going to the “principal’s office” to get one. She never came back.

When Kerri did not return, the community began an extensive search for her. Leading the search was one of the most trusted members of the community, Bradford Gill. The search lasted a day and a half until authorities checked Bradford Gill’s garage. There they found the body of Kerri Hintermesiter stuffed underneath a white work bench. Kerri had been stabbed twice, once in the heart and once in the stomach. Her throat had been slit and she was covered in blood. Smears taken from Kerri’s body revealed the presence of sperm. Bradford Gill was arrested and charged with the murder of Kerri Hintermeister.

A Guilty Plea And A Miscarriage of Justice

Gill likely figured a jury would see right through him and sentence him to death. He opted to be tried by a three-judge panel consisting of Butler County Common Pleas Judges John R. Moser, Henry J. Bruewer and William R. Stitsinger. Facing certain conviction, Gill decided to skip a trial and plead guilty to aggravated murder.

Prosectors believed Gill lured Kerri into the garage to rape her and then killed her when she resisted. Gill said differently. He testified that when Kerri came into the garage, she was laughing and joking with him and, for some unknown reason, grabbed a penknife. Gill stated they were playing around and wrestling, again for some unknown reason, when he grabbed her from behind and felt her body go lifeless. Gill insinuated Kerri had accidentally stabbed herself. He said he laid Kerri on the floor and could hear air escaping but could not find a pulse. Gill then stabbed her again and slit her throat. He stated, “I felt sorrow and fear. I don’t know why, but [I felt] anger too. A young life was gone. I then inflicted the other wounds on her.” Gill could not explain why he stabbed Kerri a second time and slit her throat. He also could not answer why there was sperm found in her body, or why he searched for Kerri knowing her mutilated body was in his garage. According to Gill, and also a clinical psychologist hired by the defense, he suffered “from a form of traumatic amnesia” after the murder and could not remember anything.

Most people believed that Gill would be sentenced to the electric chair for killing and sexually assaulting Kerri Hintermeister. Prior to sentencing, Gill portrayed himself as a model citizen who liked to help others. Gill received support from people who told the judges about his “saintly behavior in which he was always helping people in need.” Unbelievably, the three-judge panel bought it all and handed Gill the lightest possible sentence, life with parole eligibility after 20 years. The judges claimed Gill committed “an impulsive, spontaneous act” and stated that Gill’s horrific crime was a “momentary aberration of behavior, which was otherwise exemplary.” The judges also cited that Gill had personality disorders and, while he knew right from wrong, he lacked the ability to obey the law. They did not explain why no one noticed his mental problems for the previous 27 years.

The Justice System Fails Again

Although Gill was not convicted of sexually assaulting Kerri, in 1997, the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office went to court to have Gill adjudicated a sexual predator. Although they had the coroner’s report, which clearly indicates the presence of sperm in Kerri’s body, Judge John Moser (one of the judges on the three-judge panel) ruled Gill NOT to be a sexual predator. The Butler County Prosecutor’s Office made a second attempt to have Gill ruled a sexual predator in 2007 after Gill’s own daughter came forward and said Gill had molested her as a child. Once again, the court refused to label Gill a sexual predator. This means if Gill is released, the community where he resides will receive no notification to inform them of what he did to Kerri Hintermeister.