Kansas Supreme Court upholds convictions in torture killing of Wichita man

The Kansas Supreme Court upheld on Friday most of the convictions against a Wichita woman for torturing and killing a man in a crime that the trial judge called “horrific beyond imagination.”

Heidi Hillard and her husband, Jeff, were convicted of participating in the November 2016 killing of 33-year-old Scottie Goodpaster Jr. of Wichita over a $185 methamphetamine debt. Both were sentenced in 2018 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years.

What Goodpaster and his girlfriend went through was shocking and agonizing, police and prosecutors have said:

The pair were awakened and taken separately from their Wichita hotel room on Nov. 5, 2016, before being tortured for hours in a shed outside of the Hillards’ house. The assaults dolled out to Goodpaster’s girlfriend included being choked, shocked and sexually assaulted with a stun gun, tied up, beaten and bitten by a dog.

When she put the blame for the missing meth money on Goodpaster out of fear for her life, the group turned on him.

They hit him with an ax, a hammer, a wooden board and a knife; drove staples into his face; shoved objects into his mouth; and attached jumper cables to his genitals. They wrapped his head with tape, shoved him in a white pickup truck and attacked him more when he tried to escape.

Ultimately, Goodpaster was taken to a wooded area in Harvey County and hung from a tree.

It took searchers six days to find his body.

The court affirmed Heidi Hillard’s convictions and sentences for premeditated first-degree murder, felony murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery and rape. It overturned her conviction for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance after concluding the state presented insufficient evidence to support that charge.

The Supreme Court ruled the lower court did not abuse its discretion in admitting as evidence an audio recording of the victim’s interrogation. It also determined the prosecutor did not misstate the law and the court did not err in its jury instructions.

Contributing: Amy Renee Leiker of The Eagle; Associated Press

This story was originally published July 23, 2021 at 1:23 PM.