Patricia Hill was convicted of murdering her husband, Frank Hill, at their home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, after learning he had re-subscribed to an adult TV channel.
Before Frank and Patricia, then 69, got married 17 years earlier, she informed him that she wasn’t going to tolerate his addiction to porn.
She said it was offensive to her and “her God.”
After they got married, she thought his porn addiction would end, but it didn’t.
Patricia, who worked as a nurse for 50 years as well as a Sunday school teacher, said throughout the years, she would find pornography tapes and magazines around the house that Frank kept “stashed and hidden.”
She said she would often toss pornographic items in the trash out of fear of her grandchildren finding them.
In May 2018, Patricia said she grew weary of her husband’s porn addiction, and she filed for divorce.
When Frank assured her that he would stop watching porn, she withdrew the divorce papers, according to NBC News.
The following month, Frank was supposedly back to his old ways. He had subscribed to a porn channel through Dish Network. When Patricia found out about it, she canceled it.
On July 28, 2018, there was an extra $30 charge on their Dish Network bill. When she found out it was because Frank had re-subscribed to the adult TV channel, she became furious.
She confronted Frank in the shed, which he referred to as his “man cave,” behind their house on Donaldson Lane.
When she asked him about the subscription, Frank continued drinking his beer and watching television, possibly football, and said, “What does it hurt?”
His response caused her to go into a rage.
She flipped over a table containing his beer and cigarettes before walking back inside the house, where she retrieved a .22 caliber pistol.
When she returned to the shed, she shot at her husband’s feet as he was picking up the items she had knocked over.
Patricia fired a second shot, which she claimed was supposed to be a warning shot, but the bullet struck Frank in the head.
She then called 911 and admitted to shooting her husband.
Emergency first responders arrived and transported Frank to Jefferson Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Patricia was arrested and booked into the Jefferson County Jail on charges of capital murder, to which she pleaded not guilty.
She testified that her intention was not to kill her husband but to get his attention.
Arkansas Online reported that Little Rock psychologist Dr. James Moneypenny told the court that “her [Patricia Hill] mind was empty” at the time she shot and killed Frank Hill.”
He added, “There was nothing going through it. She was overwhelmed.”
“Anyone who knows the facts of this case, 50 years as a nurse, never been arrested and all of a sudden ends up in this situation where she shoots her husband—that kind of thing speaks for itself.”
In April 2019, Patricia was found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.