00:00:26
Friends of 911, what's the location of your emergency? All right, we're on 125th Street. I heard two guns fired.
00:00:32
Please hurry. I know Sean. He's one of my friends. I think the killer's still here. Sean
00:00:39
He's my friend now. The one with the gun, what's his name? Connor Elsen, 17 years of age.
00:00:50
What's going on? Somebody hurt? Who's hurt? Two people. Two people? Where are they at? When police get to
00:00:59
the scene, the first person that they come upon is Connor. And they're trying to figure out what happened. Two
00:01:06
teenage males. Okay. Inside. Okay. I think they're deceased. The officers aren't exactly sure when
00:01:17
they walk into the house what they're going to see. And what did the police see? Ethan first. And then you see Ben.
00:01:24
They were both shot in the head. I'm going to detain you, okay? They immediately turn around and they say,
00:01:30
"Detain him." Talking about Connor. He's going to buckle you up, all right? I have your son in the backseat of the
00:01:50
patrol car because he's indicated to us that he took two people's lives today in your
00:01:56
house. Okay. Dear God. I'm going to go now. He never had a temper. Always very mild, laid-back. Had he ever
00:02:14
been in trouble? No. >> No. Never. My son is a good boy. He's a good kid. Hey, it's okay. Relax, okay?
00:02:28
That was not him that night. I know that was him physically. But mentally, that was not him.
00:02:35
Take a seat in here for me, okay? That night, he was just like, "Why would I do this?
00:02:42
You know, those were my friends." Can you tell me anything about your friends, about Ethan and Ben?
00:02:56
I'm sorry. All I'm going to say is that they were very good friends to me. That's all I'm going to say.
00:03:11
So evil. He talked about that it was evil what he did. He knew what he was doing.
00:03:18
He wanted to pull that trigger. And he did. Hey. Listen to your brother. Take a few deep
00:03:28
breaths, okay? Connor's accused of shooting two friends. He admits that he did it. What am I missing here? Why take
00:03:36
this case on? Well, because we wanted to get to the truth of what happened, the whys.
00:03:41
It is baffling to me. Out of the blue, a extremely incredible act of violence was
00:03:49
committed. After our research, we realized that there was a reason. >> Do you take
00:03:56
uh any prescribed medications? Yes, sir, I do. What do you take? An expert with a
00:04:00
defense saying the shooting was driven by psychosis caused by a popular acne medication. You think the acne
00:04:07
medication put you in a mental state where you could commit murder? Yes, ma'am. It was just before 9:00 p.m. on December
00:05:01
23rd, 2023, when police arrived on scene in Friendswood, Texas. Is somebody hurt?
00:05:11
Who's hurt? Two people. Two people. Where are they at in the house? Where are your friends at? They're
00:05:20
They're in the walkway. They're in the walkway. When police entered Connor Hilton's
00:05:27
home, Oh. they found 18-year-old Ethan Riley and 19-year-old Benjamin Bleek lying on the
00:05:35
floor, each with a gunshot wound to the head. Hello, who's Who's in here? The caller
00:05:41
in the bathroom. They also discovered the boy who called 911. He was 15. Open the door. Let me see your hands. Let me
00:05:48
see your hands. It's just me. I'm the only person in the Who else is in the house? Pull your shirt up. Pull your
00:05:53
shirt up. Let me see the back. Turn around. Because he's a minor, we're blurring the
00:05:58
face of the 15-year-old. Is there anybody else supposed to be in the house? No. How many? Four total? It It
00:06:03
was four total. The teen told police officers how quickly everything unfolded. As we We literally 10 Not even
00:06:10
a 2 minutes of being in the house, like we come in, he's uh on on the couch or something. He stands up. I walk right
00:06:17
to the bathroom. I have to pee. And then I heard two long loud gunshots, and everybody was quiet. And I I felt like I
00:06:23
could hear laughing, but I think it was just them breathing, and Connor was like, "What have I done? What have I
00:06:28
done?" and started crying. And I don't know where I don't know where y'all found them, but I thought he was going
00:06:32
to shoot through the door or something. In the house, unbelievably, paramedics saw signs of life in Ben and Ethan, and
00:06:39
worked to keep them alive. Where's the gun at, bro? I I really have no idea. Where did you
00:06:45
put Outside, police bagged Connor's hands to preserve evidence before putting him into a squad car. He needs
00:06:52
to be sent to be put in the mental hospital. Connor, at first, claimed he fired the
00:07:06
gun in self-defense. We got into an argument. Okay. And Ethan tried to He tried to come at me and
00:07:22
He tried to come at me and I had three guns, and I He He He tried to tried to grab for my throat.
00:07:36
At the time of the shooting, Connor's mother, Janiece Hilton, was at home. I got a
00:07:43
from my neighbor that said, "Hey, something's going on at your house." And I was already on my way home.
00:07:50
You pulled up and what did you see? Yellow tape, police cars everywhere. I'm going to talk to you something
00:07:57
that's going to be very hard to talk about and >> Okay. The police had me sit in a car and
00:08:02
he told me. I cannot believe this. This is insanity. What was going through your mind?
00:08:09
>> was like, "How could this happen?" I was just there 45 minutes ago and he he was perfectly fine.
00:08:19
It wasn't long before Connor's father, Neil Hilton, received word. Johnnie and Neil divorced back when Connor was a
00:08:26
toddler. It's never in a million years would you think you would get I would get that
00:08:31
kind of phone call. Just knowing, you know, just knowing my son. Ben and Ethan were taken to area
00:08:37
hospitals where they were fighting for their lives. Nick McCandless, then a detective with
00:08:44
the Friendswood Police Department, was tasked with calling Ben's mom, Shannon Bleek. I get her phone number through
00:08:50
dispatch and call her up and I said, "Look, your son has been injured and I need you to come
00:08:56
up here." I just got in the car and I just started praying. And what happened when you got to the
00:09:08
hospital? Nick met me outside the doors and he told me that Ben had been shot. And I remember falling to my knees.
00:09:19
And he, you know, he was like, "Come on, let's go upstairs and wait in the waiting room and let's find out what's
00:09:24
going on." Eventually, a doctor came out to speak with them. He said that Benjamin had been shot in
00:09:32
the head. It was all very surreal. It just didn't make any sense. I just kneeled on the floor and just
00:09:41
prayed. What did you say in that prayer? I just asked that he be with Ben and that he please get us through this.
00:09:53
While Ben underwent surgery, Where am I being transported to? Friendswood. Connor Hilton was taken to the
00:09:59
Friendswood Police Department. I know this isn't a time to bring bringing this up, but uh are you having
00:10:07
a good Christmas, officer? Nothing about that night was making sense. Listen, what I'm going to do is
00:10:16
read me my Miranda rights. I have the right to attorney. So well, yeah, but I don't want to I'm going to read them,
00:10:21
man. You Soon, Connor would end up in an interrogation room with an entirely new
00:10:26
story to tell. Let me just go straight to the chase. He literally just kind of opened up, right? And it was an
00:10:32
emotional roller coaster. You know what? I need to be honest with you guys. I'm just going to give you the truth.
00:10:37
Oh my god. Hey, man. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you? Good, man. I'm happy to see you.
00:10:55
As his two friends were in the hospital fighting for their lives, >> Do you know if my parents are here? Uh
00:11:01
yeah, they can call my mom and dad. Connor Hilton was in a Friendswood Police Department interrogation room so
00:11:06
that detectives could start to unravel the truth of what happened. How you doing, sir? Hey, so this is Detective
00:11:14
McCandless. I knew nothing about him. I kind of went in blind. And so, I had no idea if he
00:11:19
was going to be aggressive towards me. I don't know you, man. You know what I'm trying to get to know you, right?
00:11:27
Just trying to understand, you know? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. No, sir. Very polite. >> Very polite. Not who I normally would
00:11:34
sit across from an interview right after a shooting. You just got to go straight
00:11:38
to the chase. It appeared the 17-year-old didn't want to waste any time. He launched into a story, and this
00:11:45
time he didn't mention an argument. Instead, he said it was an accident. The whole the whole
00:11:52
it just all happened. It just all happened. Tell me how the gun goes off. It happened so fast.
00:12:04
I I I had it in my hand. I I really don't know. I I was just standing next to Ethan.
00:12:18
I I don't know, I but I I heard I heard it off. I'm letting him stick with the story
00:12:28
about it just went off, right? My idiot self had the stupid finger on the trigger of So, I'm like, "Okay,
00:12:36
well, how did it go off the second time?" And so, I said, "Connor, So, I've got two guys there that have both been
00:12:42
shot in the head, right? So, you know what I mean? Like, how does that happen as an accident?
00:12:48
That's what I want you to explain to me." That's when Connor Hilton broke down. It's like his whole personality,
00:12:54
everything changed. And so did his story, yet again. You know what? I need to be honest with you guys. I just need
00:13:00
to be honest. Oh my god. Okay, I've had suicidal homicidal thoughts for so long. I I I I went up
00:13:16
I went up to to Ethan and just I'm sorry for lying to you guys. I'm really sorry. And Hilton didn't stop
00:13:25
there. I convinced that my mom might not come for me so I can either shoot myself or shoot somebody.
00:13:35
This feels so much better. Hilton told the detectives that he hadn't told anyone, including his mom,
00:13:42
that he'd been experiencing those suicidal and homicidal thoughts. And what did you think you were going to be
00:13:47
able to achieve to help you by doing this tonight? Was it something you felt you had to do to be able to get this
00:13:55
pressure off of you? Yes, you you said it right there. Those are the exact words. I know it's going
00:14:01
to sound really like psychopathic and just like straight-up disgusting and just weird, but that the idea of
00:14:09
murder is just super interesting for me. I don't know why. I don't know why it is. Listen, listen.
00:14:15
Hey, it's okay. That interview was probably one of the most honest interviews I've
00:14:20
ever had with a suspect in a case where literally they just poured everything out on the table and like you could see
00:14:26
the sigh of relief. So walk me through what Connor said happened. Connor says that
00:14:34
he had planned this. His plan all along was to shoot his friends. >> I've been planning it for so long. But
00:14:41
he said he had no specific target in mind. He'd invited a whole group of friends over that night. Ethan and Ben
00:14:48
just happened to be the ones who showed up. I was convinced maybe he was going to try to kill me, too. As for that
00:14:54
15-year-old who went to the bathroom as soon as he got there, he simply got lucky. And he closed the bathroom door.
00:15:01
And I thought it was risky to either shoot through the door or go cuz he locked the door. Okay.
00:15:08
And I'm really glad. I'm really I'm so so glad that he closed the door and I didn't kill him. I was Before the
00:15:14
interview ended, Hilton made yet another admission. What I did was wrong. I need
00:15:19
to do the punishment. I I that. But I also need help. I need really really I need some help.
00:15:27
I could tell he was struggling that night with I knew this is what I felt. I knew this
00:15:31
is what I wanted to do, but how I got here, I don't know. Connor Hilton was arrested on two counts
00:15:40
of aggravated assault with serious bodily injury. That night in jail, Hilton was allowed
00:15:48
to make a phone call to his mother. Mom, I need I need I need help. I need like like mental like mental like
00:15:54
mentally help. I know you're hurt. It's okay. We'll get it for you, okay? I did I did I did a very bad thing.
00:16:06
The next day, Christmas Eve, Connor Hilton was released on bond. We got him home and then he just lost
00:16:14
it. Fell on the floor like crying. Did he tell you what happened? I I couldn't hear any of it. I
00:16:24
like I I mentally didn't want to hear. The Riley family spent their Christmas Eve in the hospital and were there when
00:16:37
their son Ethan died. Somebody spotlight these windows. On Christmas night officers were back at Connor Hilton's
00:16:52
door to arrest him on a murder charge. I looked out the window and there's a SWAT
00:16:58
truck outside. Johnny They came in. >> Yeah, they came in. Where's he at? Hey. So, I was kind of like in the back of
00:17:07
the house sort of and I just had my hands up. And they had their guns drawn? >> Yes, ma'am.
00:17:16
You're under arrest for murder, okay, buddy? All right, come on. No hugs, man. Go.
00:17:31
Let's go. Hey, we love you, Connor. We're working on it, okay? Be strong. Hilton was booked into jail, but again,
00:17:40
the stay was short-lived. He was eventually given a bond, and his family posted it.
00:17:49
As Connor's parents began grappling with what their son had done, Shannon Bleek was still in the ICU with her son, Ben.
00:18:00
His head was bandaged significantly. She'll never forget the moment she was first allowed to see him.
00:18:08
I saw him, and I started to hyperventilate. And a nurse grabbed me and hugged me.
00:18:16
I composed myself, and I walked over. I said, "Benjamin, Ben, Mama's here." And Ben
00:18:23
opened his eyes. He kind of like, "I hear you." You know? If there is any good news in this story,
00:18:33
Ben, are you comfortable with walking over here? it's that Ben Bleek survived. How are you feeling today? Good.
00:18:58
He has shown more resilience and more grit than any person I could ever even know.
00:19:06
It's just like he's on a mission to get better. And he just does it. Shannon Bleek
00:19:13
believes it's a miracle her son Ben survived. Both bone flaps were removed, meaning the two big parts of the the
00:19:21
skull. He had a tracheotomy put in to breathe and he had a feeding tube put in to eat.
00:19:28
And he was paralyzed on the right side. Following the shooting, Ben spent more than 3 weeks in the hospital before
00:19:37
being transferred to an inpatient rehab. Not long after arriving there, remarkably, he was up and walking.
00:19:46
Straighten it out? He was working so hard, so hard. According to Shannon, Ben would stay in that rehab for over a
00:19:54
month. Excellent job. He had to learn to swallow again. I mean, everything. During that time,
00:20:00
Shannon shielded her son from the details of the shooting. Ben doesn't remember anything from that night.
00:20:07
It wasn't until he came across an article on his mom's phone that he learned his friend Connor Hilton pulled
00:20:13
the trigger and that his best friend Ethan Riley was killed. I was really sad. What was Ethan like?
00:20:23
He was just an outstanding guy. He looked on things with a positive light. You learned that this guy that you were
00:20:40
friendly with was the one who shot you and shot Ethan. I was furious. But Ben forced himself to stay focused
00:20:52
on his recovery. At that point, Connor Hilton was out on house arrest awaiting trial. His parents
00:20:59
say they were still dumbfounded. We knew that our son, not in a million years in
00:21:04
his right mind, would do that. We knew that. You think he wasn't in his right mind? Oh, and yeah, he definitely
00:21:09
wouldn't In his right mind, he would never do this. He's always been the sweetest, loving boy ever.
00:21:15
In search of an explanation, Connor's father, Neil, began researching a prescription acne medication his son had
00:21:21
been taking, called Accutane. The drug label warns of risk of, {quote} depression, psychosis, suicide, and
00:21:29
aggressive and or violent behaviors. Neil encouraged his son's lawyers to look into it. Something happened here.
00:21:38
Adam Brown >> Something happened. It's an emotional case. J.L. Carpenter These type of cases
00:21:43
are a challenge. And Rick DeToto make up Connor's defense team. Connor had no trouble with the law, no trouble with
00:21:50
school. This doesn't make sense. Something changed. The kid changed. What changed it? What it came down to in
00:21:59
our research was the acne medication. And my research led me to Dr. Bremner. My name is Dr. Doug Bremner. I'm a
00:22:08
professor of psychiatry and radiology at Emory University School of Medicine. His
00:22:12
CV is 96 pages long. >> We didn't play around when we got our expert. >> I don't think there's another human
00:22:19
being on this earth who knows more about this topic than Dr. Douglas Bremner. Dr.
00:22:24
Bremner says he's done extensive research on isotretinoin, the generic version of Accutane. The drug is sold
00:22:30
under several brand names. He also gets paid to testify in cases. It's a very strong medication. There's a large
00:22:39
number of people, you know, throughout the world that have experienced side effects from it that including
00:22:44
psychiatric side effects. Why is it still on the market? Well, it's a it's a great treatment for acne, especially
00:22:50
severe acne that's cystic. And that's what Connor Hilton says he has. Ever since I was little, I've always had
00:22:57
these bumps on my bottom, sometimes on my armpit. They would be extremely painful. I couldn't even walk. That like
00:23:05
that's how bad they were. We tried all sorts of medicine to make it go away. And then one day we went to the
00:23:14
dermatologist and they said, "Hey, we're going to give you Accutane." That was in
00:23:18
late July 2022, about a year and a half before the shooting. Connor was 15 at the time. His mother signed this
00:23:26
document acknowledging the risks. According to court-admitted dermatology records, about a month later Connor
00:23:33
reported that he stopped taking the medication because he was, quote, "feeling symptoms of depression." I was
00:23:40
feeling real down and didn't really feel like doing anything. But Dr. Bremner interviewed Connor at the defense's
00:23:46
request, and Connor told him that he wasn't completely honest back then. He said that it was after he started on the
00:23:53
medication that he began experiencing homicidal thoughts, too. Did you tell anybody that you were
00:24:00
having these thoughts? Did you try to get help? I was scared to tell people of my actual thoughts cuz I didn't want to
00:24:05
go to mental hospital and and people think I'm crazy. Connor told Dr. Bremner that when he stopped taking the
00:24:10
medication, the thoughts subsided. They slowly disappeared. I was feeling more energetic, more
00:24:19
like will to do stuff, but I was also in pain cuz of the bumps. They got worse again because I wasn't taking Accutane.
00:24:26
In January 2023, after several months of being off the medication, Connor's dermatology records show that he went
00:24:33
back on it. This time he was given a lower dose than initially prescribed. Were you at all apprehensive, like, oh,
00:24:40
this has messed with my mind the first time, maybe I shouldn't go back on this stuff?
00:24:45
The bumps were so painful I I just needed something to cure it because it was so it was just
00:24:51
unbearable. Did the thoughts come back? Yes, ma'am. Slowly, but yes, they did. Suicidal and homicidal thoughts. Connor
00:24:58
told Dr. Bremner that the thoughts eventually became consuming. It just amplified the longer I was on it. But he
00:25:05
never reported any issues to his dermatologist again. Connor would continue taking the
00:25:11
medication on and off for the next 11 months up until the time of the shooting. Connor told Dr. Bremner that on that day
00:25:19
he took double his prescribed dose. He said that he had missed the dose of the day before.
00:25:25
So instead of taking two pills, he took four pills. After pulling the trigger that night, Connor said he stopped
00:25:32
taking Accutane and never experienced homicidal thoughts again. After speaking to Connor and reviewing
00:25:38
the evidence in the case, Dr. Bremner formed an opinion. Why do you believe Connor Hilton shot his friends that
00:25:45
night? I think he became psychotic on Accutane and he had recurrent homicidal ideation that he was not able to
00:25:51
control. Dr. Bremner is firm in his opinion. These thoughts did not occur before he took Accutane. He went off the
00:25:58
drug and those thoughts went away and then he started the drug again and the thoughts came back. So that's considered
00:26:05
to be proof basically of a causal effect between a drug and a symptom. You know that people are going to look at this
00:26:11
and say this is just a family looking for an excuse for the horrible thing that their kid did. Well, I think that
00:26:17
you know, there was no motivation. There was no history whatsoever of conflict. This person was psychotic.
00:26:26
JG Pharma, the distributor listed on the box of Accutane that Connor Hilton was taking at the time of the shooting, did
00:26:32
not respond to our request for comment. But Connor's defense attorneys would build their entire case around Dr.
00:26:41
Bremner's opinion, even though they were unaware of any other homicide case in which an Accutane defense worked.
00:26:49
You see this kid You see how upset he is? You see how remorseful he is? It's not just some
00:26:58
young man deciding, I'm just going to go on this rampage. That's not what we have
00:27:02
here. But prosecutors wouldn't be so convinced. It's not Accutane, he was evil. In August 2025, just weeks before Connor
00:27:24
Hilton's murder trial was scheduled to begin, a hearing was held to determine whether defense expert Dr. Doug Bremner
00:27:31
would be allowed to testify. He's the most qualified expert I've ever had on a case. Defense attorney Rick DeToto had
00:27:38
to convince a judge that the doctor's testimony was reliable and relevant. You have first to win the show? We may. What
00:27:45
we're arguing is that through the expert, Connor was in psychosis from the Accutane and he could not control
00:27:52
himself. Murder is got to be done intentionally and knowingly. He could not control his behavior.
00:27:58
And that takes out the element of intentionally and knowingly in murder. At the hearing, Dr. Bremner testified
00:28:05
that it was his opinion that Hilton was suffering from a medication psychotic disorder on the night of the incident.
00:28:15
He pointed to a study he conducted which found that isotretinoin, the generic version of Accutane, impacts a part of
00:28:22
the brain that regulates emotion. There's the brain on the left before treatment and then after 3 months of
00:28:28
treatment, you can see there's a a visible decrease in function in the upper part of the brain. See the reddish
00:28:35
area on the left? It's not on the right. Dr. Bremner says that illustrates the brain on Accutane has less activity. Why
00:28:44
is that important to what we've been talking about? Because we know that that part of the brain is involved in
00:28:49
depression and and also impulsivity. It is a bunch of court. Ben Bleak and his mother were in the
00:28:57
courtroom. It was very convincing listening to that gentleman speak. And then once questions were asked on the
00:29:05
prosecution side. >> Have you ever performed a brain scan of Conrad Hilton? No. It just fell apart.
00:29:13
What was your reaction when you heard that their defense was going to be that this acne medication caused psychosis?
00:29:19
Well, I thought it was ridiculous. Kayla Allen is the lead prosecutor on the case. I don't think a jury was going to
00:29:26
buy the Accutane made me do it defense. At the hearing, prosecutors argued Dr. Bremner's testimony should be excluded.
00:29:34
And they introduced a more recent study that found that, quote, "Isotretinoin users do not have an increased risk of
00:29:41
suicide or psychiatric conditions." For Allen, the case is simple. I think that he just wanted to see what it felt
00:29:51
like to kill someone. And that had nothing to do with the acne medication he was
00:29:56
>> believe it did. No. She argues Conrad Hilton was in his right mind at the time
00:30:01
of the shooting and points to that statement he made on scene as proof. He tried to make a statement. We got
00:30:09
into an argument. That one of the boys had come at him. Ethan He tried to come at me and he
00:30:16
he he tried to tried to grab for my throat. He's working a self-defense argument right
00:30:23
from the beginning. Someone who's insane at the time they've committed a crime can't automatically start forming a
00:30:29
defense for themselves. But by the time he got to the police station, it was like, "Look, I'm sorry I lied to you.
00:30:34
I'm not going to lie to you anymore. I'm going to tell you the truth." And Allen
00:30:37
says Conrad's police interview is also key. He told police officers that he had been planning it. He had acknowledged
00:30:44
that he knew right from wrong, too. I need to do the punishment. I knew what I did was wrong. He knew by loading that
00:30:51
gun and putting up to someone and pulling that trigger that he was going to kill them. That's what he wanted to
00:30:56
do. These were his friends. >> Yes. Why would he shoot them? I don't know. Because there's no clear
00:31:05
motive in this case, doesn't that support the defense's argument that Connor went into some sort
00:31:13
of a psychosis? I don't think it does. There's just people that are evil and do evil things. Allen argues Connor Hilton
00:31:22
is one of those people. Had you ever seen Connor pull out this gun before? Yeah. His friends told detectives about
00:31:29
things he'd said in the months leading up to the shooting. He would say, "One day I want to be important. I want to
00:31:36
leave a legacy." And he would make comments about killing people. >> And detectives also pulled Connor's
00:31:42
online activity. On YouTube, he downloaded numerous videos about murder. His social media posts referenced it as
00:31:50
well. Connor's friends reported this post was made just hours before the shooting.
00:31:57
It contains the lyrics, "Murder one, better run. Killing plenty is so fun." It's chemically induced. Connor's
00:32:05
defense attorneys argue Connor became obsessed with murder after he went on Accutane. So all of that can be blamed
00:32:12
on the acne medication? Absolutely. And they say the police investigation supports their case because several of
00:32:18
Connor's friends told police they noticed a change in him during sophomore year, which was after he went on the
00:32:25
drug. And when you say they noticed a change, what are they saying? Well, he was starting to isolate. He was getting
00:32:31
more involved into true crime. He wanted to be a homicide detective. >> But Allen insists Connor's behavior had
00:32:38
nothing to do with Accutane. That's just what the defense wants the community to
00:32:45
believe because it gives them an excuse. He was having problems already before Accutane was even introduced in his life
00:32:53
about not wanting to go to school. In fact, Connor was prescribed the antidepressant Prozac months before he
00:32:59
started on Accutane. But, Connor says he was only struggling with normal teenage
00:33:04
anxiety then. I was a freshman. I was nervous. Do I fit in? Do I not? And during that freshman year, did you have
00:33:11
suicidal, homicidal thoughts? No, ma'am. But, after that hearing to determine whether Dr. Bremner would be allowed to
00:33:19
testify, the judge dealt the defense a blow and ruled Dr. Bremner would only be allowed to testify during the punishment
00:33:26
phase of the trial, if necessary. So, in Texas, we have two phases, guilt and innocence, and then if there's a guilty
00:33:33
verdict, the punishment phase. So, what will you do during the first phase of the trial, the guilt innocence phase, if
00:33:38
you can't present your expert? There's not much you can do. You just have to sit there and take it and wait till you
00:33:43
get the punishment and then we put on an aggressive case regarding the Accutane.
00:33:49
There was still a lot on the line because in Texas criminal court, Connor Hilton was considered an adult and a
00:33:56
jury could sentence him to as little as 5 years in prison, all the way up to 99 years or life. How high are the stakes
00:34:05
here? I don't think you get much higher. It's a kid's life. Two weeks before Connor Hilton was set
00:34:23
to stand trial, a big development. Prosecutors offered him a deal. 50 years in prison if he pleaded guilty
00:34:31
to murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He would also have to waive his right to
00:34:37
appeal. We know Connor would have never done this if it wasn't for the Accutane.
00:34:42
So you didn't want to take the plea deal? I didn't. You didn't want to take the plea deal? No. But Connor? Well, he
00:34:49
did. What did Connor tell you? I don't want the families have to go through that.
00:34:54
They say their son didn't want Ethan Riley's family and Ben Bleak and his family to have to suffer through a
00:35:01
trial. And he also didn't want to risk receiving a life sentence. He was trying to get us on board with it and I said,
00:35:09
"But I said it's just a long time." But ultimately, the decision was Connor's and he chose to accept the
00:35:22
deal. Connor's defense attorneys say they didn't counsel him one way or the other,
00:35:28
but they believe he made the right call. I think the consensus between the three
00:35:32
of us was there was a very strong possibility that he would get life. That body cam video
00:35:37
walking in the house, it's a very difficult body cam video to watch. But while Connor Hilton and his defense team
00:35:43
had worried about the possibility of a life sentence, prosecutor Kayla Allen had worried about the opposite. My main
00:35:51
concern was he was a young kid and I think that at times it hurts juries' hearts to sentence a young kid to life.
00:36:03
We did not plea the case because we were worried about the Accutane. It was more
00:36:09
his age. She says she offered the deal only after confirming the victims' families were on board.
00:36:16
All right. On September 2nd, 2025, a plea hearing was held. It's my understanding you're
00:36:23
here this morning to enter a plea on both of these charges. Is that correct? >> Yes. You're Yes, you're right.
00:36:29
How do you plead to each of these charges? Guilty. He was crying because he was going to
00:36:35
prison, not because he felt bad for what he did. Do you think that Connor's acne medication
00:36:42
played any role? >> No. No. We know a lot of people who've taken that medication
00:36:47
and they don't have homicidal tendencies. >> Correct. Why do you think Connor pulled the
00:36:51
trigger? Because he wanted to murder somebody. After Connor Hilton formally accepted the plea, Ben got the
00:37:02
chance to make a victim impact statement. He made it clear to Connor how he felt. First of all,
00:37:10
stop sniveling. Stop crying. You did this to yourself. Secondly, the grief you have caused the Riley's
00:37:23
and my own family, I will never forgive you. Shannon addressed the court next. She
00:37:31
turned her attention to Connor's mother. We are all living this nightmare because
00:37:36
a mother chose not to tell her son no when he asked her to buy a gun. This mother put the gun in the hand of a
00:37:44
child who should not have had it. Shame on you. Remember, Connor had told police his
00:37:52
mother bought him the gun. I convinced my mom to buy that gun for me, so And in the
00:37:59
hours after the crime, Janise also told that to police. What was the reason for buying the gun? He wanted to get it.
00:38:05
Okay. But when we interviewed both Connor and Janise Hilton, they denied that the gun was purchased for him. I
00:38:13
purchased that for myself. Why did you tell the police that you did buy it for him? I've no idea. I I I even remember
00:38:21
that they showed me the interview. I don't have I have no memory of that. Do you think you were covering for him?
00:38:27
What Why would you say that? I have I have no idea. Janice Hilton has not been charged with any crime in connection
00:38:33
with the case. And even though she bought the gun less than two months before the crime, she insists she had no
00:38:40
idea her son was homicidal. There were these social media posts that he made about murder cases. He watched a
00:38:48
lot of murder videos. Weren't these warning signs? No, I didn't think so. The Hiltons continue to blame the acne
00:38:57
medication. You bought the gun in November. You didn't see any effects of the acne
00:39:02
and medication psychologically that would lead you to think I shouldn't have a gun in the house?
00:39:07
I didn't. I didn't, no. Still, Janice says she lives with an enormous amount of regret. I'm so sorry
00:39:16
that this happened and and I do feel responsible. I wish I could go back and change
00:39:22
everything and I wouldn't not have purchased the firearm. I wouldn't have made him take the acne
00:39:28
medicine. The last person to address the court during Connor Hilton's plea hearing was
00:39:37
Matthew Riley, Ethan Riley's father. I sit here with so much love, love in my heart
00:39:46
for my son, Ethan. Ethan's mother, Tara Riley, stood behind him. They declined our request for an
00:39:53
interview. He's a beautiful soul, full of love and light. You could see that light in his eyes
00:40:04
and hear it in his laughter. After that, Connor Hilton was taken into custody. We spoke to him inside the
00:40:13
Galveston County Jail the next day. Just the feeling of loneliness yesterday was unbearable.
00:40:23
I mean, don't get me wrong. I did it to myself. I'm the reason why I'm here, but
00:40:27
it it just it sucks. For Ben Bleak, everyday life remains a challenge. Ooh. He plays pickleball and basketball
00:40:39
to help restore his mobility. But he says one person has helped him the most. My mom.
00:40:46
She is always there for me. Can you explain how difficult this has been? It is very difficult.
00:40:57
But pouting about it is not going to get anything back. So just got to keep going.
00:41:13
Yeah. Go easy on me, my friend. Whoops. Oop. See, my backhand is bad, too. Yours is not as bad as my mom.
00:41:27
Oh, is that what we do? Yeah. Good game. Good job, guys. >> Welcome back to Post Mortem. I'm your
00:42:19
host Anne Marie Green, and today we are discussing the case of 17-year-old Connor Hilton who shot two of his
00:42:27
friends, Ethan Riley and Benjamin Bleek, after they arrived at his home in Texas
00:42:32
for a scheduled hangout on December 23rd, 2023. Ben miraculously survived, but when
00:42:41
Ethan died in the hospital, Connor was charged with murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. In his
00:42:48
defense, that he was on a prescription acne medication called Accutane that completely altered his thoughts and
00:42:56
behavior. So, joining me today to talk about this fascinating case is CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith. Tracy, thank
00:43:03
you so much for joining us. Hi Anne Marie, thanks for having me. Um, I want to remind the listeners, if
00:43:08
you haven't uh listened to this 48 Hours episode, the audio version, head on over
00:43:13
to your podcast feed. You can find the full audio version uh just below this episode in the feed. Go take a listen
00:43:19
and then come on back for this conversation. All right, Tracy, let us get into this
00:43:25
very unique uh defense strategy. Connor's defense team found an expert in isotretinoin, which is the generic
00:43:34
version of Accutane. And through this expert, Connor's defense team argued that Connor was driven to kill due to
00:43:41
the side effects of Accutane, which the expert says caused Connor to have a recurrent homicidal ideation that he
00:43:50
simply wasn't able to control. Now, I know that Accutane comes with side effects, and and sometimes those side
00:43:55
effects can be, you know, quite powerful, but I'd never heard of anyone being driven to kill because of it.
00:44:03
Yeah, I hadn't heard of it, either. If you look at the label, the label does warn of risk of depression, psychosis,
00:44:09
suicide, and aggressive or violent behaviors. And there have been other homicide cases that people have tried to
00:44:17
use Accutane as a defense, but none of those have been successful. As a mom, I know kids who've been on Accutane, and
00:44:25
it's a wonder drug for a lot of teenagers who struggle with acne. And a lot of people are on this drug and don't
00:44:32
suffer any severe adverse reactions. And we did reach out to JG Pharma about this case, and they did not respond to
00:44:41
our request for comment. They are the folks who distribute the Accutane that Connor Hilton was on at the time of the
00:44:48
shooting. So then let's talk about the science that the defense's expert presented.
00:44:53
What do we know about it? The defense's expert is Dr. Doug Bremner, and he's a professor of
00:44:57
psychiatry and radiology at Emory University School of Medicine. And Dr. Bremner says he's done extensive
00:45:03
research on the drug isotretinoin, which is the generic version of Accutane. He showed these brain scans where he says
00:45:10
you can see the difference between the brain without isotretinoin, and then the brain when someone is on isotretinoin.
00:45:18
The scans show that there's less activity in part of the brain that regulates emotions when a person is on
00:45:25
isotretinoin. And according to Dr. Bremner, he believes that in Connor's case, he was suffering from a medication
00:45:32
psychotic disorder at the time of the shooting. And it's important to note that Connor told Dr. Bremner that on the
00:45:39
day of the shooting, he took double the prescribed dose of his acne medication. Okay, so here's the thing though. He had
00:45:46
been taking this medication for a while. You spoke to his parents, and you asked
00:45:51
them whether or not they had seen any red flags in terms of his behavior. They didn't see any. Did anyone else see red
00:45:57
flags? Yeah, they said they didn't, but the police spoke to his friends. I spoke
00:46:02
to Ben and his friends said that that gun was out at the house all the time. It was not locked up where it was
00:46:09
supposed to be. Um and he also said concerning things. Um there's one story that Detective McCandless and also Ben's
00:46:17
mom, Shannon, told me that a week before the shooting, the 15-year-old who was hiding in the bathroom on the night of
00:46:24
the shooting, a week before the shooting, Connor had invited all of his friends over for to watch a movie and
00:46:31
the kids didn't want to watch a movie and this 15-year-old was sitting with Connor and Connor
00:46:36
turned to him and according to the 15-year-old, Connor said, "Have you ever thought about killing one of your
00:46:41
friends?" Mhm. Um there are also social media posts that Connor had made that showed a
00:46:48
fascination with murder and in fact his school received two anonymous reports from the
00:46:56
same person about 8 months before the shooting about these social media posts about
00:47:02
murder and they called in Connor's mother, they talked to Connor, they investigated and they determined that
00:47:09
there was no threat. Um we dug into the timeline a little bit just to try to figure out if this
00:47:15
fascination with murder happened after Connor went on Accutane and he did struggle with anxiety prior to going on
00:47:23
Accutane. He didn't want to go to school, but Connor said this fascination with murder happened after he was on
00:47:31
Accutane. Now, does that mean that there's a cause and effect here? The prosecution says, "Absolutely not. Acne
00:47:38
medication has nothing to do with this horrific act that Connor committed." You know, Tracy, as I was watching the
00:47:44
hour, that's kind of like one of the things that I was going back and and forth with, right? Um
00:47:49
I I know that that there can be experts to argue almost anything, but I believe this expert that, you know, perhaps
00:47:56
Accutane could have had these dire side effects. What I wasn't sure of was whether or not that could be a defense.
00:48:04
And the prosecution it sort of basically argued that, too. In fact, they argued against the science in court, the
00:48:10
prosecution um introduced a more recent study that found that isotretinoin, generic Accutane, uh that that those
00:48:18
users actually do not have increased risk of suicide or psychiatric conditions. And then the lead prosecutor
00:48:25
told you that this case is simple. What she believes is that it's not a side effect from medication, that some people
00:48:30
are just evil. You sat down with Connor um for an interview. I'm curious. I mean, how did he come across to you?
00:48:40
You know, we talked to him right before he took the plea. At that point when we spoke to him, um he thought he was going
00:48:46
to trial. So, he, at the advice of his attorneys, didn't talk a lot about what happened that night, but I feel like we
00:48:54
really did get a sense of who he was. And one of the things that stuck out to me was he was almost
00:49:01
unnervingly polite. Um he would say, "Yes, ma'am." and "No, ma'am." At one point, he actually kind of stopped the
00:49:10
interview to ask if I was feeling okay. I actually have a a clip of that. I had asked him
00:49:15
um about his friends who he shot. And this is what he said. Can you tell me anything about your
00:49:22
friends, about Ethan and Ben? I'm sorry. All I'm going to say is that they were very good friends to me.
00:49:41
That's all I'm going to say. And you didn't have any disagreements with them? No. I never hated them. I never hated
00:49:50
them. There was no argument? >> No. No, ma'am. How do you explain what happened?
00:50:01
I don't I don't know. Um, I mean I just need a water break. Just just just a water break. Of course.
00:50:14
I'm I'm sorry. It's okay. Like are you okay? You might not like freaking out or anything.
00:50:22
No, of course not. And it's understandable why you would get emotional. I'm just worried about you. Like are you
00:50:29
okay? I'm fine. She's worried about you. Yeah, I'm just worried about you. Like I don't know
00:50:35
about you and Marie, but I've never had someone say that to me in an interview before. Absolutely not. Clearly you were
00:50:42
asking him a very uncomfortable question. A a question that he's struggling to answer.
00:50:46
Um, and so I'm I'm trying to figure out if that response is, you know, kind of authentic interest in what's going on
00:50:54
with you or if it is a kind of a stalling tactic, but it reminds me a little bit of him in the
00:51:01
police cruiser. When he asks like the officer about how his Christmas is going. Yeah, are you having a good
00:51:08
Christmas? I mean every time I see that it I I gasp. It's just it's so unusual. And the detective
00:51:16
said when they brought him down to the station right after that, it was the same sort of thing. This yes, sir. No,
00:51:22
sir. Um, this remarkable politeness. Welcome back. Let's talk about the victims. After
00:51:35
entering Connor's home, police find 18-year-old Ethan Riley and 19-year-old Benjamin Bleek. They're lying on the
00:51:41
floor. Each of them have gunshot wounds to the head. Both miraculously still alive when first responders arrive at
00:51:48
the scene, but Ethan later dies in the hospital. It is Christmas Eve. Yeah, I mean the timing of this is just
00:51:57
heartbreaking. Connor was released on bond for the first time the same day that Ethan died. So,
00:52:05
it's hard to fathom what's going on here at Christmas time with these families. You have one family who has their son at
00:52:12
home, the son who shot these two boys, and those two boys' families are in the hospital. I wanted to talk about Ethan
00:52:19
just a little bit. Um, his parents described him as handsome, athletic, bold, good-hearted. Um, they said he
00:52:27
could carry a conversation with anyone, and it was interesting. It struck me that both his father and Ben in
00:52:33
describing him used the word light. Um, his dad said in court that he was full of love and light. And, uh, Ben, when he
00:52:41
was talking about Ethan to me, he said that this is the kind of guy who always looked at things in a positive light,
00:52:48
that he was just this outstanding guy. Mm. Um, and we learn actually, this is sort of like almost the highlight in the
00:52:57
hour, is that Ben survives. And the way he's revealed, as he sort of walks around the corner, um, it was shocking
00:53:06
and thrilling. And, I mean, if you've got to have like something kind of positive to hang on to, there he was.
00:53:13
Yeah, I mean, walking miracle, right? >> Yeah. And just, um, I feel so lucky to be able to sit with Ben and his mom and
00:53:22
to see his remarkable recovery and also his sense of humor, as I'm sure you got watching this hour. He has this
00:53:29
astonishing sense of humor. Um, a quick story that his mom shared with me. Um, when Ben couldn't talk, she had his
00:53:36
friends put together a playlist of his favorite songs. Uh, and she would listen to that when she was with Ben. And a
00:53:42
song from Toto, you know, I guess it rains down in Africa, Toto comes on and Shannon his mom just burst out laughing
00:53:48
like this is ridiculous and she looks over at Ben and he has a smile on his face and she just knows like my son is
00:53:56
back like that sense of humor is intact. Um, you know, he has no memory of what happened that night. Um, but Ben is very
00:54:06
crystal clear about why it happened and he says it has nothing to do with the acne medication. Yeah, in fact he called
00:54:13
it he called the defense horse. Yeah. Yeah, well, that's yeah. He doesn't mince words. It's a little bit
00:54:18
of his humor, too, there. I you know, I wonder if it's a blessing that she that he actually can't remember
00:54:24
the details of that night. I wonder if it's actually helped him in terms of his recovery. Was Ben close to Connor?
00:54:31
Ben wasn't super close to Connor, but he was friends with Connor through Ethan cuz Ben was super close to Ethan and
00:54:38
Connor's house was kind of the hangout house. Um, so they would hang out as a group at
00:54:43
Connor's house. Ben was a little bit older than the other guys. He was already taking college classes. Um, and
00:54:48
that's another part of this tragedy is that he was so independent. Uh, you know, really starting his life
00:54:54
and his mom said it was like having a baby again that she just had to redo everything with him. He had to learn to
00:55:00
walk, talk, swallow again. Just starting it all over. So, you know, we learn about the defense
00:55:09
that's coming, right? This the side effect of the this very common medication, but then 2 weeks before
00:55:15
Connor Hilton is set to stand trial, he ends up taking a plea deal. Uh, prosecutors offered him 50 years in
00:55:22
prison if he pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
00:55:27
Can you he talk a little bit about that cuz when I heard 50 years, I I actually thought
00:55:32
that didn't seem like much of a negotiation. That's, you know, it's a pretty hefty sentence. I I said it was
00:55:36
it could have been worse. It could have been life. Here's the thing, when we were talking with Connor, they attorneys
00:55:42
had gotten they'd just gotten the plea deal and so as we're as I was leaving, they went into a conference room to talk
00:55:49
about this plea deal. And yeah, it's it's a little surprising. In Texas, a defendant gets to choose if they want
00:55:56
the jury to sentence them and the sentencing guidelines for murder are pretty broad. They're between 5 and 99
00:56:03
years or life. So you figure if he rolled the dice, he and he came off as this polite, sympathetic kid, maybe he
00:56:11
could have gotten a lighter sentence. So in this plea deal, he's eligible for parole in 25 years. If he would have
00:56:18
rolled the dice and gotten a life sentence, he would have been eligible for parole in 30 years. So it's a
00:56:24
difference of 5 years. So it is kind of surprising that he took the deal and his parents told us that
00:56:32
after sentencing he called them and said he regretted taking it, but he agreed to
00:56:37
this. He signed something saying he understood what he was doing. He waived his right to a trial. He waived his
00:56:42
right to an appeal. Um Ben gave a victim impact statement at the plea hearing and he told Connor that
00:56:50
he was never going to forgive him for the grief that he caused his own family and for the Riley's. He came across as
00:56:56
very very strong, but it's it's clear that this has had quite an impact on Ben. Um I know you asked him how he was
00:57:03
doing and I want to play some of that sound. Through this all you've managed to so
00:57:08
show such perseverance. You've been so strong through all of this. What has kept you going?
00:57:15
I want to get back to where I was. What do you mean by that? What do you want to be able to do?
00:57:27
I know it's not dumb, but I want to dunk a basketball. That doesn't sound dumb. That basketball
00:57:37
was so important to you. You want to be able to dunk You were You could dunk before.
00:57:40
>> Yeah. So, you want to be able to dunk again. You know, Tracy, sometimes we can be
00:57:46
distracted by a person's presentation, right? His speech is a little slower. It's a little tougher for him to move
00:57:53
his body. We can see in the hour. But when he speaks, I see and I obviously never knew Ben until,
00:58:01
you know, watching this, but you can almost see who he was before this when he speaks, you know?
00:58:08
Oh, yeah. I so agree. I so agree. And and it getting out and playing pickleball with him really gave me a
00:58:15
chance to see who he was. That strength I mean, he he absolutely kicked my rear end um in pickleball. And it's funny it
00:58:22
like that of all sports for this young guy to be into, but he started it in rehab. They had this group of other
00:58:29
people who had suffered spinal injuries, and they would all get together to play,
00:58:33
and he really took to it. Um so, he's kept playing, and he and his mom have actually joined a group of older people
00:58:38
playing pickleball. And they joke that the older people beat them all the time, but my guess is that's not going to be
00:58:44
for long. No, definitely not. Um you know that I have a teenager at home, and in watching this hour, it really made me
00:58:52
think you have to be on your teenagers all the time. And I certainly have been guilty of I don't know everything that
00:58:59
my kid looks up online. I'm constantly surprised by her awareness of things in the world. And when I ask her where she
00:59:06
got it from, she says, "Social media or YouTube." Um but I just hope when parents watch this, they realize like it
00:59:13
is okay to be nosy. You know, get up in that get up in that computer and see what your kid is looking up and what
00:59:20
they are writing on social media. That rings for me. I have teenagers, too. And that idea that we need to be on them and
00:59:27
we need to sometimes be the parent and not the friend and say no has stayed with me.
00:59:34
Yeah, um well, I hope that this is one of the messages that people get when they watch the hour. I'm glad that the
00:59:39
victims' families and Ben did not have to go through a trial, but I would have been very interested in hearing the
00:59:47
argument and counter argument and whether or not it would hold up as a defense. It's a very unique case, Tracy.
00:59:52
Thank you so much. Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. If you like this episode, please rate
00:59:58
and review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.