David Lee Hill was tried and convicted in 2006 of murdering Officer Isaac Espinoza and wounding his partner, Officer Barry Parker. On April 10, 2004, the plainclothes officers were driving through the Bayview district in an unmarked police vehicle when they spotted Hill and a man acting suspiciously.
Police followed Hill as he walked away, and when Espinoza stepped out of the car and asked to talk to him, Hill turned around and opened fire with a semi-automatic assault rifle. Espinoza died that night. Parker was injured.
The defense stated that Hill had not recognized the two men as police officers and was attempting to defend himself from a rival gang, an argument ultimately rejected by the jury.
Hill appealed the conviction, accusing prosecutors of misconduct and arguing, among other things, that an expert witness in the trial should not have been allowed to testify. In a decision issued Thursday, the appeals court rejected those arguments and upheld the conviction and sentence.
