On the night of October 30, 1990, 25-year-old Rhonda L. Hammersley, a White female, was ending her shift at the Petro Mart gas station in Cedar Lake, Indiana. After locking up, she stood outside talking to her co-worker, Carrie Jillson, who was seated in her car, as they awaited the arrival of Hammersley's husband. The area was well-lit, a detail that would become crucial in the events that followed. Moments later, a man emerged from behind Jillson's car, raised a shotgun to Hammersley's head, and fired a single, fatal shot.
The gunman then turned his attention to Jillson, aiming the shotgun at her. She quickly dropped down onto the front seat of her vehicle as a second blast shattered the interior of the passenger door. Jillson felt what she believed to be the barrel of the gun against the back of her head before a voice commanded, 'all right, that's enough. Let's go.' Once she was certain the assailants had fled, Jillson drove to a nearby liquor store and contacted the police.
The investigation into Rhonda Hammersley's murder became entangled with a wider, more terrifying crime wave that gripped Northwest Indiana. A series of random and brutal shootings, all carried out with a shotgun, had the community living in fear. The perpetrator, or perpetrators, would come to be known as the 'Shotgun Killer.' This violent spree was attributed to Christopher Dwayne Peterson, also known as Obadayah Ben-Yisrayl, and his accomplice, Ronald Jeffrey Harris.
While Peterson was a central figure in the string of murders that terrorized the region, his legal journey in connection with Rhonda Hammersley's death took a different turn. In his first trial for the murders of Hammersley and another victim, Lawrence Mills, who was killed on the same day, Peterson was acquitted. The prosecution's case was hampered by the exclusion of key evidence.
However, the pursuit of justice for Rhonda Hammersley did not end there. The eyewitness testimony of her co-worker, Carrie Jillson, proved to be pivotal. Two weeks after the murder, Jillson positively identified Ronald Jeffrey Harris in a police lineup as the man who had shot her friend. She remained steadfast in her identification, testifying in court that she was 'positive' Harris was the killer. Following a jury trial, Ronald Jeffrey Harris was convicted of the felony murder of Rhonda Hammersley and the attempted murder of Carrie Jillson. He was sentenced to a term of sixty years for the murder and a consecutive thirty years for the attempted murder.
