An 18-year-old Texas man who said he “wanted to commit a homicide for a long time” and carried out that desire by shooting two of his friends, killing one, just days before Christmas, is facing a lengthy prison sentence.
Connor Lynn Hilton was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of 18-year-old Ethan Riley and the shooting of Benjamin Bliek on December 23, 2023, in Galveston County.
Riley and Bliek, both 19, went to Hilton’s home in Friendswood so he could show them his new gun. While they were looking at it, Hilton shot both of them in the head. Riley died, but Bliek survived after months in the intensive care unit and rehabilitation.
Bliek spoke at the sentencing and had strong words for Hilton, who was in tears.
“Stop sniveling,” Bliek said in a video shared by local CBS affiliate KHOU. “Don’t cry. You did it to yourself. Second, I will never forgive you for the grief you caused the Rileys and my own family. “Pucker your butt cheeks.”
Riley’s father also spoke.
“He’s a beautiful soul, full of love and light,” said Matthew Riley about his son. “You can see that light in his eyes and hear it in his laughter.”
Hilton was scheduled to go to trial to claim that his acne medication, Accutane, caused psychosis. However, the defense collapsed when a judge refused to allow an expert to testify that Hilton was having a psychotic breakdown at the time of the shooting, according to KHOU.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, police received a 911 call from a witness to the shooting. According to a probable cause statement, the unidentified individual reported hearing two gunshots inside the Friendswood home and called police while barricading themselves in a bathroom.
According to police, this witness also told them that after the shooting, they heard Hilton cry as he walked by the locked bathroom door and exclaimed, “What have I done?”
Police arrived on the scene and discovered Hilton outside the home, looking “visibly distraught.” When asked if anyone had been hurt, Hilton pointed to the house with two fingers, nodded, and “stated there were two teenagers inside [he] believed to be deceased,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
Riley was lying on the floor in his T-shirt and shorts, “with a gathering of blood under the subject’s head,” according to police reports.
Bliek, meanwhile, was lying on the floor near Riley.
Both were shot in the head. Police discovered a revolver with a teal handle and gray finish nearby. Hilton allegedly later told police that he “talked his mother into” buying it for him.
After Riley and Bliek were taken to nearby hospitals, police say they took Hilton in for a gunshot residue test on his hands and interview. During the session, police “observed Hilton confess to shooting Bliek and Riley.”
He told police that his friends had come over to his house and were “all in the main area of the residence” when he began displaying his gun.
“Hilton stated that there was no disturbance between him and the other subjects to include any disagreement on the date of this incident,” according to the Friendswood Police report. “Hilton advised affiant that he decided to shoot Riley, Bliek and [redacted] once inside the residence.”
The then-17-year-old told officers that he “stood up, raised the gun, and shot Riley first in the left side of the head.”
“Hilton then stated that he turned to his right and shot Bliek in the left side of the head,” the probable cause affidavit reads.
The defendant also told his arresting officer that he saw Bliek raise his hands to defend himself when he pulled the trigger.
“Hilton stated that he fully understands what he had done and that he should be held accountable,” the police reported.
When he was arrested by police early on Christmas Eve 2023, he was only charged with two counts of aggravated assault with bodily injury. He was booked into the Galveston County Jail and bond was set at $1 million.
Hilton posted bond by midday. By Christmas night, he had been re-arrested after District Attorney Jack Roady approved an upgraded murder charge following Riley’s death. He was out on bond awaiting trial before pleading guilty.
