Scattered?
Hill also later said he put his mark in them...
What happened to those marks?
Offhand, I don't remember the exact term he used, but he did say that he figured it was an auto from the way that the cases were distributed. Or, "scattered" as I said it. Like I said, I think that the ".32 dark finish automatic" description of the murderous firearm exerted an influence of it's own, and likely more than anything to do with the location of the cases.
As for the marks, I don't know. I wearied of CT chain-of-custody arguments years ago, when I realized that the goalposts would never stop being moved on me. Just like you are now trying to do by changing the subject from "why did Hill radio 'automatic .38'" to "what is the chain of evidence for the .38 cases?"
It looks like someone else has taken up that thankless task anyway, so I'll leave it to them. The subject seems to be in good hands.