Juniper Acres woman due in court in fatal shooting of boyfriend
(Update: Adding court appearance scheduled Monday afternoon)
A resident of Juniper Acres, a rural Crook County “off the grid” subdivision, was arrested Saturday on first-degree murder and other charges in the Thanksgiving Day shooting death of her live-in boyfriend who she also was charged with firing several shots at last year, authorities said.
Sheriff’s deputies contacted Tina Marie Hill, 53, at the home at 767 Southeast Myrtlewood Lane, where she was taken into custody without incident and arrested for the murder of Dennis Allen Stewart, with whom she had had an “on-again, off-again” domestic relationship for several years, Undersheriff James Savage said in a news release.
The two were living in a small cabin on the property at the time of the altercation that led to the gunshot and Stewart’s death, Savage said.
The arrest resulted from a more than week-long investigation of the Nov. 23 killing that included the assistance from numerous Central Oregon law enforcement agencies and the Crook County District Attorney’s Office.
Hill also faces charges of second-degree manslaughter, reckless endangering and felon in possession of a firearm. She is being held without bail on the murder charge and total bail of $125,000 on the other charges.
Hill is due to appear in court Monday afternoon by video from the Jefferson County Jail in Madras, where female inmates are held until Crook County’s new jail is completed, District Attorney Wade Whiting said Sunday.
The investigation is still ongoing, Savage said, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Elliott or Detective Mitch Madden at 541-447-6398.
Deputies responded to a welfare check around 11:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning and found Stewart’s body. Savage had said a “person of interest” in the case was contacted and interviewed.
In June 2016, Hill was arrested on attempted murder, unlawful use of a weapon and second-degree animal abuse charges. She was accused in an indictment of pulling a Colt model 1911 .45-caliber handgun and firing several shots at Stewart. None hit him, but one struck and injured one of the couple’s dogs, sheriff’s deputies said at the time.
Court records show Hill was granted conditional release the following month, including requirements that she live at Redemption House, a shelter for women and children in Prineville, that she not possess weapons and engage in “no assaultive harassing behavior.”
Judge Gary Williams dismissed those charges last August, but Hill also faced two counts of misdemeanor harassment involving June 14, 2016 incidents involving “offensive physical contact” with Stewart and sheriff’s Detective Scott Durr.
In March of this year, documents show Hill entered a guilty plea to the harassment charge involving Durr, a Class B misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Hill was placed on a year’s probation, with conditions including that she “continue current mental health therapy at Mosaic Medical in Bend” and confirm her continued participation to the court and DA.
