Man convicted in Madison Co. killing

EDWARDSVILLE -- A Madison County man faces up to 60 years in prison after being convicted in the 2005 killing of a man whose body was found in a ditch by a mushroom hunter.

Circuit Judge Ann Callis found 34-year-old Nathaniel Hill guilty of first-degree murder during a bench trial in Edwardsville.

Hill and his brother, Clinton Hill, initially were charged in the April 2005 killings of 48-year-old Derek Pitts and 40-year-old Vincent Rollins. The victims' carpet-wrapped bodies were both found in a ditch.

But Hill was tried only in Rollins' beating death, with the other murder count dropped apparently as a procedural move involving Hill's agreeing to have the case decided by a judge.

Nathaniel Hill insisted Rollins' death was self-defense.

Clinton Hill pleaded guilty to murder and is serving a 20-year sentence.