Porn star falls to death after suspected sword attack

(AP)

A porn actor suspected of killing a colleague died after falling some 40 feet from a rocky hillside after a stand-off with police, officials said.

A "less than lethal munition" was used against Stephen Clancy Hill just before his fall, said police officer Bruce Borihanh, who had no other details about the weapon that was used.

KABC-TV video of the incident showed Hill moving to the edge of the outcropping from a seated position and then letting himself drop as police closed in on him.

Swat officers had spent part of Saturday afternoon trying to talk Hill down from the hillside as he clutched a sword.

It was unknown whether the sword was the murder weapon in Tuesday's deadly attack at a DVD production centre that also left two people injured.

Hill, 34, fled to the hillside after leaving a house where he was barricaded in for most of Saturday.

Murder and attempted murder charges had been filed against Hill on Friday after Eric Jover, who runs the Ultima DVD production house, offered a $2,000 reward on the company's website for information leading to his arrest.

Hill attacked a colleague with a sword that was used as a film prop during a social gathering at Ultima's studios about a week after being told he was being fired and that he would have to move out of the production facility where he had been living, authorities said.

He then turned on two others who rushed to their co-worker's defence. One of those who attempted to help, Herbert Hin Wong, 30, was killed in the attack.

Hill, whose professional name was Steve Driver, fled in an SUV with the murder weapon, authorities said.

Ultima is located in the San Fernando Valley, known in the adult film industry as Porn Valley for its large number of porn businesses. The small company produces niche films featuring fetishes and sexual domination of men.

Hill was convicted of second-degree assault and a handgun charge in March 1999 in Maryland, according to court records.