Powerful gay men. Vulnerable teen-age boys. Murder. For years, some prominent local men who led secret lives were rumored to be protected. Whispers surrounding another important man's death prompt the question: Is there really a conspiracy?

Lance had all the dad he needed at home, grieving father says

By ROBERT PRICE, Californian staff writer
e-mail: rprice@bakersfield.com

Monday January 20, 2003, 03:40:00 PM

Felix Adamo / The Californian Chris Hillis, in solitary confinement at the Lerdo Pre-Trial Facility on charges of murder, reacts emotionally as he talks about his son Lance.

Breakfast arrives at 3:30 a.m. Two bologna sandwiches pop through the slot at 9:30 a.m. Dinner appears at 3:30 p.m.

Those interruptions, along with a nightly phone call to his wife, occasional book-of-the-month-club deliveries and the constant, soft whir of the ventilation system, are the main features of Chris Hillis' life at the Lerdo Pre-Trial Facility north of Bakersfield.

To a man who spends every day in cinder-block isolation, trying not to think about the dead son he had so desperately tried to save, they are welcome distractions.

But Hillis, awaiting trial in the September 2002 murder of Assistant District Attorney Stephen M. Tauzer, can't always purge Lance from his mind.

How can he? Hillis' son -- who would have turned 23 last week -- was at the forefront of his thoughts throughout the last four years of Lance's troubled life.

Chris Hillis, who granted The Californian an exclusive interview at Lerdo last week -- on condition that he not be asked to address facts of the murder case -- remembered a gentle, kind-hearted kid who succumbed to a devastating drug addiction.

"He was quick to laugh," said Hillis, a former police officer and investigator in the District Attorney's Office, who became a drug counselor specifically to understand and help his son.

He'd hoped Lance would follow in his footsteps and one day work with recovering addicts.

Tauzer, Hillis' former boss, lobbied to keep Lance in drug rehab programs. Hillis believed his son, who'd flunked out of an astounding number of programs -- some more than once -- needed something tougher.

Lance needed significant jail time, perhaps as much as eight months, Hillis said.

"For those people who can't beat drugs on their own, it takes a catastrophic event," Hillis said. "For some people, it's a weekend in the cold tank. For others it takes a 30-day deal. For some it's state prison. I don't know that Lance was ready for prison, but he needed something.

"It was time. I was scared as a parent. He was driving under the influence. He went through his windshield one time. ... I never wanted my son to suffer and go to jail, but it was time."