Curtis James Hill, 29, was found guilty of one felony count of special circumstances murder in the commission of a robbery. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 16 and faces life without the possibilty of parole.
Hill was already serving nine years in jail for robbing and assaulting WWII veteran Cecil Warren, who was 77 at the time of the attack, and was scheduled for release this August. However, Hill and his accomplice, 29-year-old John Kirk McKinney of Huntington Beach, were charged with murder in 2009 after Warren died from injuries he sustained during the robbery.
McKinney was already serving four years in prison for the robbery, and faces a murder trial Feb. 27, 2012.
On Nov. 11, 2003, McKinney and Hill attempted to rob Warren's parked van. Warren was working as a handyman and had been cleaning the Huntington Beach bank parking lot that day. After Warren noticed Hill and McKinney in his van and asked them what they were doing, Hill and McKinney hit and kicked Warren in the head, robbed Warren of his wallet and fled the scene.
Warren was discovered bleeding and moaning on the ground 30 minutes later by a passerby, who called 911. He was then transported to the hospital where he spent three years in a coma and died from his head injuries in 2006.
