48 Hours - Who Killed the Prosecutor?

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

Prosecutor Steve Tauzer was found brutally murdered in his Bakersfield, California garage. At first, investigators suspected a revenge killing by drug dealers. But as they dug deeper, they turned their focus to Chris Hillis, a former police officer, colleague and friend of Steve Tauzer. "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 8/11/2004. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays and stream on demand on Paramount+.

He was an extraordinary guy. Steve Towser was a prosecutor with a heart. He was really brilliant. He had like a mandate to become a savior in the world almost. His vicious murder stunned law enforcement and the whole community. Whoever committed this crime had something personal against Mr. Towser. Investigators suspected revenge, an enemy he'd made fighting crime. Possibly a madman that was.

A madman that was full of hate. But that's not where the evidence would lead them. The DNA indicates to us quite clearly. Aaron Moriarty asks a difficult question. Was the prosecutor hiding a secret? He was completely obsessed with my son. Was Steve Towser just trying to save a life? And in the end, it cost him his own?

He was convinced there was no one he couldn't save. A 48-hour mystery. Who killed the prosecutor? 911, what's your emergency? Uh, I have to report somebody maybe dead, maybe a homicide. The calm voice on the phone that Sunday afternoon. I just see a man laying there on a car. Gave no hint of what Bakersfield, California investigators were about to encounter.

In Bakersfield, a veteran prosecutor has been found murdered. September the 15th, 2002, assistant. District Attorney Steve Towser was found dead in his garage. Sheriff Carl Sparks, as well as the entire legal community, was stunned by the murder of Steve Towser, the Kern County Assistant District Attorney for almost 20 years. Steve had a lot of friends in this community and I count myself as one of those friends. Mr. Steven Towser was a very influential individual. When homicide detective John Solitz arrived on the scene,

on the scene. This is the point of entry. He knew this was no ordinary investigation. What we found was we made entry inside the garage was Steven Towser's body, and he was lying face down. Steve Towser had been stabbed repeatedly in the head. Whoever killed Mr. Towser was possibly a madman that was full of hate.

Well, of course, I was shocked. and very saddened. He was an extraordinary guy. District Attorney Ed Jagels was both Towser's boss and a longtime friend. He was always loaning or giving money to family members and other people. He was interested in salvaging people. He was just that kind of guy.

In a way, he was more like an uncle, and we looked up to him and, you know, just thought he was the greatest. Growing up in Nguyen, Growing up in Northern California, Steve Towser was the oldest of 14 children, a role model for his sisters. He liked to play with my kids. Towser, a lifelong bachelor, was Uncle Steve to over 25 nieces and nephews. It's been really hard on the kids. After Steve died, he was a big part of the whole ranch up there.

He had like this mandate to become a savior in the world. world almost to do something really good and helpful to people. That's why he became the prosecutor known for his big heart. Towser was as much in every man as he was really brilliant. Janet Crosby was Steve Towser's assistant for six years. Every time before he went off to handle a huge case, you'd have to make sure he tucked in his shirt and we'd straighten his collar. He was just a regular guy, but he was completely brilliant.

The brutality of his murder is just, it's just unthinkable to me. In the years, Towser was with the DA's office. He made many friends and dangerous enemies, criminals he had helped put away. We investigated different avenues, including drug dealers, drug users. Detective Laura Lopez worked the case with John Salis. However this crime was committed, and whoever committed it was very, very forceful, and very, very angry. How many weapons?

There were three knives that were found. Was there any sign of forced entry? No, no force entry that we found. That and one other detail quickly changed the focus of the investigation. Empty beer bottles found in Towser's kitchen suggested that he may have even socialized with his killer or killers before the murder. I was thinking that there was some type of a... friendly meeting, and then this particular friendly meeting got out of hand and the result

that somebody got hurt. Police also say something about the way Towser was murdered suggested his killer was no stranger. Based on the injuries, I felt that whoever committed this crime had something personal against Mr. Towser. And that's when investigators started looking at a rather unlikely suspect. Christopher Hillis. I had information that Mr. Hillis had an ongoing problem with Stephen Towser regarding Lance Hillis. Lance was Chris Hillis's 22-year-old son.

What did you then find inside the house? There was a Bakersfield College identification card. They had the picture of Lance Hillis. There was a backpack from Lance Hillis. So everything's leading me back to Chris Hillis. Chris Hillis is a former cop and an investigator who had worked for Steve Towser. Police believe there could be motive in the complex relationship between Hillis, his son, and the prosecutor. One month after the death, Chris Hillis is arrested and charged with the murder of Steve Towser.

The Attorney General's office filed a complaint on an open count of murder with the use of knives against Mr. Towser. Chris Hillis. Mr. Hillis, we will, in or not guilty, please. The defendant will be remanded to the custody of the sheriff. I never had dreamed in a million years that I'd be in custody in a cell, looking at the charges I'm looking at. Hillis says he is innocent of murder, claiming that authorities are gunning for him to cover up a dark secret about Steve Towser.

He was completely obsessed with my son. That's a strong word. Obsess. It was the word that described it. He was obsessed with my son. You know, I hope I get acquitted. That's what I hope. What makes the arrest of Chris Hillis so shocking

is that the man he's accused of killing had once been a friend. Both men had devoted their lives to law enforcement. Hillis as a cop, Steve Towser as a prosecutor. They worked together at the district attorney's office. Ed Jagels is the DA. He and Chris Hillis were very close friends. But at some point, the friendship turned into a feud.

Over one issue, Chris's 22-year-old son, Lance. Well, they don't know up your stocking. I miss him terribly. Lance Hillis was Chris's middle-suitous. Chris's middle son from an earlier marriage. He's handsome. He's very handsome. Chris is now married to Pam.

Was Lance close with his dad? Lance was really close with his father. Those who knew Lance said he was a good student, liked girls, and tried hard to please his dad. But you think you're beautiful. Lance was also friends with Steve Towser, the bachelor, who lived just down the street, who would often stop by for family dinner.

for family dinner. He started showing an interest in Lance when Lance was, you know, in his mid-teens. Lance's brother Jason, now a probation officer, also remembers Towser's early friendship with his younger brother. He would bring books over. He knew Lance liked to read. He would spend time with him and talk to him, you know. But that picture-perfect family fell apart as Lance grew up.

When he got on drugs, everything changed. How old was he? I think around 16. Here in Bakersfield, California, the drug methamphetamine is cheap and plentiful. And like too many teenagers here, Lance's infatuation with a drug got out of control. In no time at all, his life took a downward spiral that led to tragedy for him and for everyone who loved him. When he started using this methamphetamine, it just completely took control of him. of him. The latter stages he was injecting it.

Jason said watching his brother Lance become a meth addict was like watching a car accident in slow motion. It has ruined my brother's life. It has impacted my family. And I'm sure it's impacted a lot of other families in America. And what was that doing to your dad? Oh, it tore him apart. What should I've done? What could I have done? What could I stop? We were heartbroken. We cried, you know, we just wanted him to change,

and we wanted it so badly. Trying to save Lance became his father's passion. I'd spent a lot of just talking to him. You know, you have to reason with him. And I tried to reason with him, a little sugar, little salt. Lance didn't respond to those things. Drugs became just too important to him. And so it was not surprising that his land,

Lance's drug problem became serious, Hillis turned to his friend Steve Towser for help. I remember having a conversation with Mr. Towser about treatment centers. Towser jumped at the opportunity to help this young man he had known for years. But as Towser got more and more involved, Hillis began to fear that his help was actually hurting Lance. Lance got arrested. He stole a compressor from a business. and was arrested in Steve Towser's car. Both men wanted desperately to help Lance,

but disagreed on how. Chris Hillis was convinced the only way to save Lance was to send him to prison to dry out. Steve Towser disagreed and believed rehab would do the job. He kept saying that Lance is not a drug addict, and I would say Lance is a drug addict. According to Towser's boss, District Attorney Ed Jagels. Towser also thought that Chris Hillis may have been part of the problem. Chris was

as a policeman and apparently as a father a very rigid individual and his belief was that the kid had to go to prison and quote hit rock bottom. The battle over control escalated and when Lance left his father's house and needed a place to live, Towser began to subsidize him. including paying for an apartment. I think Lance's apartment became somewhat of a safe place to go and use drugs. On a hot summer night in 2001, Chris Hillis went to the apartment to check up on his son. It was real surreal. They had the rigs and the spoons and the drugs and everything. They had already injected.

What was your reaction to that scene? What did you do? I put Lance in handcuffs and I ran the other guy off. Hillis blamed Towser, believing that giving Lance money and keeping him out of jail was only feeding his son's drug addiction. I called Mr. Towser and had him come to this apartment and I showed him drugs and I showed him needles. I absolutely begged this man to leave my son alone. Pleased with him. It continued. He crossed the line.

But was that motive for murder? As he passed by, I saw his face, and there was nothing there. Lance was really, really bad. Really, really bad. He was out of his mind on drugs. Barely out of his teens, Lance Hillis was losing his soul to Crystal Meth. Quite literally, he was killing himself. Lance was arrested time and again.

for possession of drugs and stealing. You know, we tried everything. You know, we put him in rehab. Lance was in every drug program here in Kern County. Finally, after no rehab program seemed to stick. I knew he had to hit bottom. I knew he had to start paying some consequences, some serious consequences.

Chris felt the best thing for Lance was a prison term. What did Steve Towser think was right for Lance? Drug treatment facilities. By late 2000, Lance had tested positive for drugs, 13 times. The state probation department recommended that he be sent to state prison for at least a year. Extended period of time in custody away from drugs to clean the system out.

Lance's brother Jason, also a probation officer, agreed. And I requested the court, I asked the judge if he would put Lance in custody for some time. But it never happened. Steve Towser stepped in. He became a pattern. He appeared in court for Lance, lobbied judges for leniency, and convinced a rehab program that Lance had failed to take him back. Towser's office wasn't prosecuting any of Lance's cases, but he was one of the most powerful

people in the Kern County judicial system. So people here in Bakersfield were beginning to wonder whether Towser was misusing that power. You had a member of the Probation Department complaining. You had the family members complaining. Towser's boss, District Attorney Ed Jagels. Wouldn't that have been better for Steve Towser to back off? Why didn't he? Yes, it would have been much better from my office if he hadn't done what he had a perfect right to do.

That was Steve Towser. He was convinced there was no one he couldn't help. There was no one he couldn't save. Why did Steve Towser risk his career and reputation to help another man's son? Obviously, he can't answer that question, but Towser did explain some of it in a personal journal found after his death. In it, Towser wrote, Although I was single and had no children of my own, Lance seemed like a son to me. My dream, like a parent, was to watch Lance walk across the stage of some college to accept his degree.

He was completely obsessed with my son. Is it possible that Towser just viewed your son really the way you did, you know, as a father? It's my opinion, no. Towser even gave Lance a room in his own home. But as Lance's addiction deepened, even Towser began to wonder whether his way was the right way. At what point was I just being conned? How long could I go on accepting one failure after another? Shortly after writing this entry, Towser had his answer.

Initially the call came out of a green Ford Focus had been stolen from the Kentucky Fried Chicken. On August 7, 2002, Lance Hillis, after failing another rehab program, stole a car outside this Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was doing at least 65 or 70. I slammed on my brakes. Maurice Rollins was on the road that night. Lance almost ran into her. I don't know. I'll never forget the look on his face. I would describe it as a hit on.

Lance Christopher Hillis, age 22, died instantly. He didn't even try to miss the bus. He didn't hit his brakes. He didn't do anything. According to police toxicology reports, he was high on meth when he was killed. When you lose a child, You have a lot of guilt.

What should I have done? What could I have done? You know, I can blame myself. Do you blame Steve Towser? Certainly to a degree. God's going to hold him accountable. I believe that. And one month later, when Steve Towser was discovered brutally stabbed to death,

Chris Hillis was the logical suspect. Chris Hillis was arrested at his business this morning. After Chris Hillis was arrested. arrested, the local newspaper, the Bakersfield, California, began to question Towser's involvement with Chris's son. The fact is that Steve Towser went beyond where he should have in terms of his office and gave this kid breaks that most people are not going to get. Herb Benham is a columnist for the Bakersfield, California. As soon as the story began to unfold, the rumor was that Towser was involved with this young man, romantically.

The allegations of a sexual relationship between Towser and Lance Hillis were being fueled in the local papers by Chris Hillis. Mr. Towser was a homosexual. He was abusing my son. You mean physically? I think so. Sexually. The allegations of abuse didn't sit too well in the Bakersfield community.

This is not a town that's tolerant of homosexuality. People in this intense family town looked at it and went, well, now I'm having trouble with this. What I don't like is the implication that Steve Towser was some kind of a sexual predator. I have no information that he ever was. Scotty Wallace was a close friend of Steve Towsers. The notion that he was a sexual predator, that's bad enough. The notion that he might be gay, that's a whole other issue. He was part of our family.

I'm certain if he had any kind of inclinations toward being gay or something, he would have said something to me. There was nothing sinister about Steve Towser. He didn't have a secret life. His life was an open book, and most of it was down here. The scandal side of the story made headlines, but the bottom line is this. In more than a year and a half since Towser's death, neither the media nor Kern County Police found any evidence that he was involved in a sexual relationship with. Lance Hillis. During our investigation, we did investigate that angle and could turn up nothing. We never received anonymous phone calls from ex-lovers involved in that lifestyle with Mr. Towser.

Steve Towser was problemed up. He was wired, strange, and he was not normal. Towser was well aware of how Hillis felt about him. Chris had become my sworn enemy. He told people he feared there was an unnatural relationship, between Lance and me. But if he knew Lance, he would have known that was not true. He hated me because I helped Lance. Is it fair to say you hate Steve Towser? I don't like using that term hate. Prosecutors who are handling this case that you had the best reason to want Steve Towser dead. Did you kill him? No, I didn't kill him. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey, and we're the office ladies. We're still talking about all the hilarious behind-the-scenes details from the office

with icons from the show like Rain Wilson, Greg Daniels, Malora Hardin, and so many more. And we can't forget our two conversations with Office Ladies superfan Billy Eilish. Hello, so join us for brand new episodes every Wednesday. And revisit the Office rewatch every Monday. Follow and listen to Office Ladies, wherever you get your podcasts. Baring a child is... Till it happens, you can't explain it. I really wasn't able to go through the grieving process because about a little over a month

after my son's death was when they arrested me. And so I've been in here ever since. Chris Hillis has spent nearly a year behind bars in solitary confinement for a murder he insists he did not do. If I was going to do this, I certainly wouldn't do it a month after my son's death. The time frame was scary. Certainly wouldn't have been done in the manner it was done or at his house. The time behind bars has aged him and left him with plenty of time to think.

If you didn't kill Steve Towser, who do you think did? I have my suspicions. you put yourself at risk when you get involved in certain lifestyles. We're dealing with the situation where we have a man who lived a secret life. Lawyer Kyle Humphrey, along with Hillis, has told anyone who will listen that Stephen Towser, the second most powerful man in the district attorney's office, may have lived a double life. This looked like a homosexual scene.

The number of stab wounds, the parent-prud. brutality of the killing is typical in what we see in homosexual killings. Anybody walking into this crime scene, it would scream interrupted robbery or hustler killing. I mean, really, truly, there's no sexual overtime to this, to the killing at all. Dave Drewliner and Mike Farrell with the office of the California Attorney General are prosecuting Chris Hillis. They say the evidence shows how the murder was committed. The fact that he was found in his Boxer shorts indicates that perhaps he was either getting ready for bed or was pulled out of bed when this murder occurred.

We think that he was then either pulled or directed to go into the kitchen area. We don't know if Steve Towsard knew that he was in big trouble and tried to make a run for it through the kitchen door and out through the garage. And in the garage, where the murder took place, police found a critical piece of evidence. We have a small amount on the murder weapon. to Drew Liner on the knife found next to Towser's body was a microscopic amount of the killer's DNA. A very, very tiny amount of DNA. It's a small amount of DNA, no question about it. And the DNA indicates to us quite clearly that the killer was Christopher Hillis.

And you're confident, though, with those test results that it's definitely Chris Hillis. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's no, there is no doubt at all that it's Chris Hillis's DNA. In this case, we're dealing with picograms, trillions of grams, totally invisible, smaller than the smallest thing you can imagine. And that's what they're hanging their hat on. Attorney Kyle Humphrey says the DNA, like many things in this case, is suspect. No eyewitnesses, no blood, no fiber, no hair, no fingerprints. They got nothing. So what they're doing is tying everything into two tiny little invisible specks of DNA and lots of drama.

The other speck of DNA was found on a beer bottle in Towser's kitchen. Again, the prosecution claims the DNA belongs to Hillis, and strangely, is mixed with DNA from Towser. If you follow their assumption, apparently Chris and Steve both put their lips on a beer bottle. Shared a beer, which just is amazing to me. Easily, Steve Towser could have drunk the beer. Maybe an hour or two before Chris Hillis came over, the murder occurred, and Chris Hillis, in a moment of bravado, grabbed a half-empty beer bottle and took a swig.

After that incredibly brutal murder, grab a beer bottle and take a swig? I don't find that any more incredible than the killing itself. And prosecutors say those specks of DNA, small or not, tell the story of what happened at Steve Towser's house the night he died. It began with a fight in Towser's bedroom that moved into this garage and ended with Towser unconscious on the floor. That's when, according to prosecutors, Chris Hillis decided to kill Steve Towser. Then Hillis went from the garage, back into the kitchen.

He grabbed two of those knives, went back into the garage, had a completely defenseless Stephen Towser on the ground and proceeded to stab him to death by stabbing him multiple times in the in the temples and obviously in the brain. It's overkill, isn't it? Maybe this is Chris Hillis's way of saying, do you think you know what's best, and he goes right for the brain. Pam Hillis doesn't buy it. Why are you so sure he wasn't involved? Because it's not him.

It's not, he could never do that. But you are a wife who really loves him. her husband. Yeah, I really love my husband. Isn't it possible you just couldn't accept something like that? No. No. He didn't do it.

He wasn't involved. He had nothing to do with it. It is what Chris's sons also believe. Almost total confidence that Dad's going to be acquitted of this murder. I have faith in the justice system. He didn't do it. The evidence can't lie. It'll come out in trial.

in trial. I've proclaimed my innocence from day one, and they're coming out in the paper and saying all this stuff, and that's why I've hired best attorney I can afford, and I don't know what else to do. If Chris Hillis is found guilty of first-degree murder at trial, he will face a sentence of 25 years to life. Second degree, 15 years to life. What if you're convicted? It's just the nightmare continues. A nightmare will continue. I don't know what justice is, but the truth will set me free. On October 7, 2003, we begin with shocking developments in a major murder case here at home.

Chris Hillis stunned everyone, especially his wife. I was shocked, but I understand. understood why Chris did what he did. After a year of claiming his innocence, Violation Femal Code Section 192, voluntary manslaughter, how do you feel for your honor? Chris Hillis admitted he killed Steve Towser, pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Hillis will now go to state prison, sentenced to 12 years. 12 years for killing the number two man in the District of Attorney. In my opinion, this was justice. I'm not saying what Chris Hillis did was right. Why did Chris Hillis kill Stephen Towns? Any parent can understand what could cause you to break.

What you are about to hear, no one in court ever heard. It's almost like it didn't happen. It's easy to get in denial. Actually, it's the easiest way to deal with it. Just hours before he pled guilty, Chris Hillis sat down and told us his story told us his story of what happened the night he took another man's life. I can't remember a lot of what happened. I don't want to remember a lot of what happened.

Well, that Friday night, it was late when I'd gone to the cemetery. And I sat in my car outside the cemetery and drank some beer. It was what Chris says he had been doing frequently since his 22-year-old son Lance had died in that violent car accident only five weeks earlier. earlier. I was having trouble dealing with his death. I was crying all the time and I was I had, I was taking value. As Chris drove home sometime after 1 a.m. Saturday morning, he says he saw lights on at Towser's home. You know, I wanted some answers, I think, to be real frank, and this was maybe an opportunity to get those. I knocked on his door.

Hillis says Towser, wearing only boxer shorts and a t-shirt, invited him in. Did you have a beer with Steve Towser? I had a beer. I can remember having a beer. So it sounds like, at least initially, the conversation was civil. It was initially civil. But Chris says the conversation quickly turned ugly. Tell me what you remember, though. What set you off, though? It was kind of bizarre, but I suddenly noticed that laying on the counter was a piece.

picture of my son. Why his picture was laying on the counter, I have no idea. It was Lance's college ID. Towser had just collected a number of Lance's belongings from Lance's last rehab clinic. So I'm looking at this picture of my son and at that point I got angry. I started asking him, why would you leave my son alone? His response was that he loved Lance. Lance. He said, I love Lance. I love Lance. I lost it. I lost it at a certain point. I remember us wrestling from in the kitchen. You know, I got pretty vicious at that point.

Hillis says he can't remember exactly how, but both men ended up in Towser's garage. You don't remember picking up the knives? I don't remember. Do you remember stab? I remember in the garage falling to the ground and I thought I was punching him. And apparently I wasn't. You were stabbing him. Apparently. So what does Chris Hillis say that Steve Towser did to provoke his homicidal rage? No, I'm not going to share that.

Can you give me an idea? Just... I'm just, I don't want to go there. But as part of his plea bargain, Hillis was forced to reveal to prosecutors what he says pushed him to to his breaking point. He said the wrong thing. What did he say? Said it was consensual.

And that's all he said, it was consensual. And what did you say or do? I went after it. Chris Hillis killed Steve Towser because he believed Towser was sexually involved with his son Lance. Everybody knew the abuse that was going on with my son. But abuse, or for that matter, any sense. sexual relationship between Towser and Lance may only have been in Chris Hillis's mind.

It's rumor and innuendo. It's based on no facts whatsoever. Prosecutors couldn't find any evidence that Steve Towser was involved in a sexual relationship. We looked on his work computer. We looked on his home computer. We looked at correspondence between he and Lance. And there's not even a hint of anything beyond a big brother type relationship. I think most people thought Chris Hillis was guilty here. But Steve Towser got between, in terms of this community, the way people look at it, he got between a father and his son. Most people would think that it ended the way it should have ended. Steve Towser, as far as we know, he had good motives.

I mean, everything he was trying to do was to save Lance. And despite what Chris Hill is thought, either accurately or inaccurately, for that, Steve Towser did not deserve to die. die. Here a man spent his entire life doing nothing but good for this office and for the state of California. And it just absolutely breaks my heart to see that kind of life turned upside down. I mean, that's not the legacy that he deserves. He was a wonderful man.

Steve never could turn down anybody who asked him for help. And Chris Hillis turned it into something really awful. And he murdered him. And, you know, there's just no excuse to go murder somebody. Chris Hillis will spend at least nine years in prison before he is eligible for parole. Are you sorry that Steve Towser is dead? Yeah. I get no pleasure out of that. It's brought nothing but misery to everyone.

Chris Hillis served nine years in state prison and was released in 2013. Three years later, he was discharged from parole supervision.