News Digest News Digest (February 25, 2005)

Driver in SUV attack sentenced to prison Driver in SUV attack sentenced to prison (February 25, 2005)

William "Billy'' Hill, 22, of Santa Cruz was formally sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday in connection with the October 2003 death of a Palo Alto man during a late-night party in a staid Palo Alto neighborhood.

Hill pleaded no contest in November 2004 to gross vehicular manslaughter in connection with the Oct. 3, 2003 incident that resulted in the death of 21-year-old Chad Snow of Palo Alto, an aspiring rapper.

Snow's father, Marv Snow, a former Weekly reporter now residing in Nevada, expressed outrage that earlier criminal acts committed by Hill in Santa Cruz County were not punished with jail time.

"Seven different incidents and he got probation in every case," Snow said of Hill's record prior to the 2003 incident at a drinking party in a Palo Alto residential neighborhood. "The Santa Cruz Probation Department should be embarrassed or investigated for incompetence."

Hill will receive credit for the two year's he already served in jail since the attack.

"I can only hope that his experience in prison is an ugly one," Snow said. "He got away with everything before and he thought he could get away with killing someone. This time he went too far. Unfortunately, in just slightly more than two years, he will be back out on the street. Who will be his next victim?"

Snow was attending the party in the 2100 block of Cowper Street in Palo Alto when a group of people attempted to crash the party and a fight ensued.

When the youthful partygoers chased the intruders out of the house and into an SUV, Snow leapt onto the hood, causing the driver -- a Santa Cruz girl under 18 -- to hit her brakes. Snow fell backward onto the pavement, fracturing his skull, according to an autopsy report. As friends pulled Snow up onto a lawn, Hill traded places with the driver and returned, driving over Snow's body. The autopsy report showed additional skull fractures consistent with crushing.

Snow was pronounced dead two days later at Stanford Hospital.

"Who would drive over a prone body, whether dead or alive?" Snow's mother, Karin Brattli of San Francisco, asked during the sentencing proceedings. "No respectable human would. It is so very sick what Hill did to Chad. Never forgivable."

She recalled the last words she spoke to him on the day of the party: "OK then, have fun. Love you."

"I can still hear those words and probably always will," she said.

Middle schools move toward teaming Middle schools move toward teaming (February 25, 2005)

Despite concerns from parents, the local school district plans to expand the controversial teaching method known as "teaming" at Jane Lathrop Stanford and Jordan middle schools next year.

The district's Middle School Advisory Team, consisting of teachers and parents, delivered a report in support of teaming at a Board of Education meeting earlier this week.

About a dozen members of the community, both parents and teachers, spoke against the plan, saying teaming's complex schedule shoves out electives and wastes teachers' time.

Teaming is when a core group of teachers share a common pool of students. Terman Middle School is completely teamed. --Alexandria Rocha

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