24 y.o.mentally ill and severely abused boy-slave who beat parents to death w/claw-hammer,gets legal murder sentence,in SC
Joe1orbit
Your perversely malevolent society continues to demonstrate it's
irrationality, moral inferiority, and hypocrisy. Over in South Carolina a few
days ago, a 25 year old fellow, abused, brutalized, and victimized as a child,
had the ultimate act of injustice imposed upon him. He was sentenced to be
legally murdered by the very society that is guilty of and responsible for
having created him. What makes this even MORE outrageous than most other
societal legal murders is the fact that James got sentenced to be murdered
because he slaughtered BOTH of his own PARENTS.
Yup, your society enslaved James at birth, to these two people, without
making any attempt to determine their competency. Your society took James, a
totally helpless and supremely vulnerable baby, and ENSLAVED him into the
possession of two people, solely because they created him by copulating or
fornicating. NO legitimate attempt was EVER made, throughout James' childhood,
to monitor what type of treatment he, as a helpless child-slave, was receiving
at the hands of his slaveowners. And yet some 24 years later, when an ENRAGED
victim of systematic abuse and mistreatment FINALLY picks up a CLAW-HAMMER and
uses it to beat his slaveowners to death, your PERVERSE and DISEASED society
gives itself permission to demonize this child victim, put him on trial for
murder, and sentence him to be legally murdered, when ALL he did was RESPOND to
the brutality and injustice that BOTH his society and his creators/owners,
chose to impose upon him. What an outrage!
The legal murder sentence was announced in court on Friday, and James shed
real tears, and stuck his fingers into his ears, as the verdict was read to
him. I hope he wasn't crying out of regret for his deed. I hope he realizes
that he had EVERY right to kill the two untested, unscreened, unqualified
people who were given automatic and unchallenged possession of him at birth, to
treat as their slave. I hope james was crying for HIMSELF, recognizing that he
WAS and IS and WILL BE, the ULTIMATE victim of society. It is hard to imagine
any human being MORE victimized, than one who is enslaved at birth to his
parents, subjected to their unchallengable abuse and torment, then after he
finds the internal strength to kill them both, is demonized by the very society
that CAUSED his childhood of torment in the first place, and sentenced to be
legally murdered by that very SAME society. It is just amazing, the MALEVOLENT
HYPOCRISY.
The jury spent only 3 hours deliberating, before they ALL decided that this
25 year old slave must be legally murdered, for having DARED to target and kill
his legal owners. At the same time, it is 100% certain that IF a parent was
charged with killing their legally owned slave, this same jury would REFUSE to
hand down a death sentence upon the parent. Why?? That's easy, folks. Because
in your diseased society, slaveowners are entitled to brutalize and murder
their slaves, and to be shown tremendous leniency, while all slaves who have
the AUDACITY, the GALL to dare and rise up against their legal slaveowners,
must be cut down and demonized and brutally punished to the maximum degree, for
not SUBMITTING their souls and lives to the malevolent rage, inferiority, and
Poison Container use of their owners.
It was November of 1997 when James picked up a claw-hammer and used it to
viciously beat Mommy and Daddy to death. You see folks, in a DISEASED society,
VICTIMS are DEMONIZED. James was a VICTIM of society, but society can never
admit to it's malevolence, and so it demonizes James, the person that it has
victimized more than 99.9999% of all of it's citizen-slaves. During this trial,
between his lawyer's closing argument, James himself walked over to the jury
and APOLOGIZED for committing the double murder that he was absolutely entitled
to commit. He told the jury: "I miss my parents. I must live with this every
day of my life. What happened that morning remains so vividly in my mind. I'll
never be able to explain; I'll never know why or how or anything. I know that
it happened, and I can't even, I can't even explain to my attorneys what
happened." If he had been a DADDY talking about having murdered his son or
daughter, the jury would probably have reached out to COMFORT him. At the very
least, they would have cried in sympathy WITH him, and never even CONSIDERED
imposing a legal murder sentence. But because he was a SLAVE who killed his
legal owners, he was nothing but a DEMON in the eyes of the jury. Every juror
on that panel saw themselves as a PARENT, not as a CHILD. And so they
identified ONLY with the 2 slaughtered parents, and their perverse bigotry,
prejudice, and hatred towards James was PROFOUND.
Prosecutors rub their hands together with glee when they get a case that
involves a slave killing his parents, especially BOTH parents. The
prosecutor-whore KNOWS that it will be so EASY to win a conviction. He knows
that the jury and judge will be on his side every step of the way, as soon as
they hear that the case is about a slave killing his owners.
These two parents were rigid, ambitious, slavedrivers. They sought to MOLD
their son-slave in their own perverse image. And when he rebelled, when he
refused to accept their perverse inferiority and demands, they brutally
assaulted his mind and consciousness, no doubt telling him that he was
worthless, a failure, that he was failing to meet the STANDARDS that they, as
slaveowners felt entitled to impose upon him. And of course NOBODY but James
himself, can truly know what type of sexual, physical, mental, or emotional
torture they may have inflicted upon him, in the privacy of their Sacred family
Unit, that your malevolent society CHOSE and chooses to never "interfere" in.
James' Mommy was mentally ill, severely so. Among other things, she SLASHED
her own arms. Believe it or not, prosecutors CONDEMNED defense attorneys for
bringing up the slaughtered mommy's mental illness during this trial. They
actually accused the defense, in open court, of 'raping' the Mommy, just
because the defense TRIED to TELL and show the jury that James had been
BRUTALIZED at the hands of his parents, and specifically at the hands of his
severely mentally ill Mommy. And the jury, insane hypocrites that they are,
almost certainly AGREED with prosecutors: "How dare they bring up the poor,
dead, Mommy's mental illness", that was the insane bigoted attitude of the
jury, thanks to the cunning malevolence of the prosecutor.
The fact that James himself suffers from severe and documented mental illness
was also perversely ignored by the jury. NOTHING mattered to them, but to
punitively punish the demonized child-victim-slave, turned slaveowner killer,
to the maximum degree possible. They saw James as the ENEMY. THey saw
themselves as parents, and perhaps at their core, some of them KNEW that their
OWN children harbored or deserved to harbor RAGE and HATE towards them. Whaa
perverse miscarriage of the very notion of justice, this case is!
I'm running out off space, so I'll post this now, and add another article on
this case, that details more of James' childhood abuse, in a few minutes.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of the 3/27/99 online edition of The Rock Hill
Herald newspaper:
Jury deliberates more than 3 hours before reaching unanimous verdict
By Jeffrey Collins The Herald
(Published March 27, 1999)
YORK - Sobs wracked James Robertson's body, and he jammed his fingers in his
ears Friday as a jury sentenced him to death for killing his parents.
Jurors never looked at the 25-year-old, even when his sobs became audible. But
one juror was crying when she entered the courtroom. The more than 40 other
people in the room remained silent as the verdicts were read.
The jury deliberated for three hours and 40 minutes before reaching its
unanimous verdict about 9:30 p.m.
Robertson was convicted of two counts of murder this past Saturday for beating
his parents, Earl and Terry Robertson, to death with a claw hammer in their
Westminster Drive home in November 1997.
"I think justice was definitely served," said 16th Circuit Solicitor Tommy Pope
after the sentence was announced. "But let's not forget this was a tragedy.
It's sad that Terry and Earl's lives amounted to nothing."
James Robertson also was sentenced to 30 years on an armed robbery conviction
and one year on a charge of financial card transaction fraud.
As Robertson's attorney Bill Hancock of Rock Hill left the courthouse, he said,
"That's the hardest thing I've ever done."
The verdict of death by lethal injection came despite a plea from James
Robertson for mercy.
Between his attorneys' closing arguments, Robertson, dressed in a blue shirt,
gray pants and blue sports coat, approached the jury box and addressed the jury
of six men and six women.
"I miss my parents. I must live with this every day of my life," Robertson said
as his lip quivered and his voice broke.
"What happened that morning remains so vividly in my mind. I'll never be able
to explain; I'll never know why or how or anything," Robertson said, reading
from handwritten notes and looking the jurors in the eyes.
"I know that it happened, and I can't even, I can't even explain to my
attorneys what happened," said Robertson as he occasionally paused to look up
at the ceiling.
In his closing statement, Pope warned jurors not to been won over by Robertson,
whom he likened to the "Leave it to Beaver" character Eddie Haskell.
"He said he killed Mom because he couldn't live with her knowing he killed Dad
and left her alone," Pope said. "He is sickened to the core. Don't be swayed by
him."
"I submit to you if this case doesn't beg for the death penalty, there isn't a
case that deserves the death penalty," Pope said.
Robertson's second attorney, Jim Boyd of Rock Hill, told jurors how he promised
his nearly 2-year-old son at birth that he always would love him, even if he
became a mass murderer or killed Boyd himself.
"If James Robertson had killed someone else, they (his parents) would be
sitting right behind him. And I say their spirits are sitting right there
behind him now," Boyd said as his voice cracked. "And I submit to you, they cry
out for you to save his life."
Every seat in the courtroom was packed during the closing statements. Only an
occasional cough or sniffle from the more than 75 spectators was heard as the
attorneys spoke.
Pope nearly brought himself to tears as he talked about the dedication of his
80-year-old father, Elbert Pope, to his family. He wondered why Robertson hated
his parents so much.
"The nightmare began long, long ago, when this man started to disappoint them
at every turn. Earl was a proud man, and Terry was a loving mother," Pope said
as he pointed toward Robertson and the defense attorneys. "Then they drag them
in this courtroom and tear them apart for what this man has done."
Pope said the defense "raped" Terry Robertson by revealing the most intimate
details of her psychological problems, which ranged from bipolar disorder to
hallucinations to slashing her arms.
Belittling the defense's theory that Robertson suffered from a Ritalin-induced
rage, Pope said Robertson put socks over his hands and carefully plotted each
detail of his parent's death.
Pope said Robertson believed his parents had to die because their son feared
they would spend his share of their $2.2 million estate.
Terry Robertson was beaten with a claw hammer while her husband showered. Then
the defendant waited for his father to get out of the shower before spraying
Tilex in his eyes and attacking him with the hammer and a baseball bat.
"This man, this woman, his parents didn't die an easy death. They died a
tortured death," Pope said.
"He drained them physically, he drained them mentally. And he eventually
drained every drop of blood from their bodies," Pope said.
"This case screams out like Terry screamed that day. I beg you to hear it, hear
it," Pope said as his voice thundered through the courtroom. "Summon the
courage to answer that scream - that this man deserves death."
After Pope finished, Hancock reminded the jury that Robertson suffered from a
bipolar, or manic-depressive, disorder he inherited from his mother, as well as
a host of other mental problems and drug addictions.
"They weren't bad people. They did everything they were supposed to do,"
Hancock said of the Robertson family. "But they couldn't handle the lot the
good Lord gave them."
Hancock said a life sentence was a just punishment.
"He will continue to live his life behind bars until he rolls out of jail to a
pauper's grave," Hancock said.
Boyd said Robertson was an intelligent man who should be punished for his
actions but should be spared a death sentence because of his mental illness.
"Should he be punished the same way I would if I did this? No," Boyd said. "He
may be smarter than me, but his brain doesn't function like mine."
Robertson's accomplice and former girlfriend, Meredith Moon, was sentenced to
20 years in prison as the jurors in Robertson's trial began their
deliberations. She pleaded guilty to reduced charges of accessory after the
fact of murder and agreed to testify as part of a plea bargain.
Circuit Court Judge John Hayes set a June 1 execution date for Robertson. But
that date is just a formality, as his death sentence will be appealed
automatically.
York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant said Robertson immediately was transferred to
death row at the Lieber Correctional Institute in Ridgeville. He sighed when he
was asked what he thought about the verdict.
"In this case, there were no winners," Bryant said.
----------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 3/26/99 online edition of The Rock Hill
Herald newspaper:
Many factors involved in jury's decision about death sentence
By Allison Bruce The Herald
(Published March 26, 1999)
It is never easy to convince a jury to sentence a man to death, even when he
already has been convicted of killing his parents with a claw hammer.
But that's what prosecutors hope to do today when they argue that 25-year-old
James Robertson should be put to death, rather than serving life in prison, for
the November 1997 slaying of his parents, Earl and Terry Robertson.
Jurors are expected to base their decision solely on the evidence and the
judge's instructions, but they are often swayed by a number of factors,
including their personal value systems, their empathy for the defendant, the
brutality of the crime and even their religious beliefs.
"Death penalty cases are unlike any other cases," said 11th Circuit Solicitor
Donnie Myers. "They are emotional. There's a lot of friction involved and
emotion involved because you're talking about somebody's life. Each case has to
be decided on its merits."
Capital murder trials are split into two parts, the guilt phase and the penalty
phase. Michael Brown of Rock Hill, one of eight York County attorneys who
defend death penalty cases, said the defense lawyer has to select the jury with
the penalty phase in mind.
"Personally, I prefer educated people with a religious background, because they
tend to be more liberal in their thought and less likely to give the death
penalty," he said.
Jurors are supposed to be impartial, but impartiality is an impossible goal for
people deciding whether a man will die or be sentenced to life in prison.
"You never know what a jury is going to do, because a juror is a product of
their environment," said Ralph Garris, director of the criminal justice program
at University of South Carolina in Lancaster.
Beliefs and values also can play a role in a juror's final decision.
"I think it's not just religious background," said the Rev. Steve Hogg, senior
pastor at First Baptist Church. "Anyone's value system influences their
decision-making, and not just in capital cases, but on any issue."
Hogg said Christians in particular could interpret Biblical scriptures as
supporting capital punishment or could take certain precepts from the New
Testament to oppose capital punishment.
"It gets into a person's understanding of scripture itself," he said.
Empathy is sometimes a factor in a jury's sentencing decision, but so is a
sense of justice. In the case of Susan Smith, the mother who drowned her two
young children, the jury sentenced her to life in prison.
"I think the thought was, "Let her live, she'll suffer more alive than she
would being executed,'" Garris said.
In Robertson's case, jury empathy could be damaged by several factors, Garris
said.
First, although testimony suggests Robertson has struggled with mental illness
and abuse, he also has been portrayed as a young man who killed his parents for
a $2 million inheritance.
Brown described the trail of Dwayne Eric Forney, who was convicted of shooting
a York County deputy to death on Dave Lyle Boulevard in 1992. Brown said Forney
received some sympathy because of his difficult family background.
"Forney really didn't have advantages in life, whereas Robertson did have those
advantages," he said.
Also, the brutality of the murders could affect the jury's decision.
"The more gruesome the case is, the more jurors are moved, as is human nature,"
Myers said.
Garris said Robertson's allegations of abuse and mental illness do change the
equation, but they may not sway the jury's decision.
"I'm afraid one thing we are doing is we are finding so many ways to turn
around and find excuses for our actions. Somewhere we've got to get a grip," he
said.
Another factor in jury decisions is the location of the trial. The South has
high homicide rates, and the big death penalty states are Florida and Texas,
according to John W. Milstead, associate professor of sociology at Winthrop
University.
"People are accustomed to having to grapple with the issue, and we do use it
more commonly," he said.
Even when the defense prepares the witnesses and experts it will bring in,
attorneys must consider the jury.
"You can get an expert almost anywhere, but you really need to get someone that
is credible and can talk so the jury understands what they're saying," Brown
said.
Defending against the death penalty depends on the strength of the case, said
Jim Boyd, one of Robertson's attorneys.
"The ultimate decision always comes down to your client," he said.
----------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 3/28/99 online edition of The Rock Hill
Herald newspaper:
From private school to death row
By Andrew J. Skerritt The Herald
(Published March 28, 1999)
When James Robertson moved into Darren Keller's Camden Avenue apartment in
August 1997, Earl Robertson was there to help out.
Earl Robertson wrote his son's roommate a $225 check for the first month's rent
and a $200 security deposit.
Three months later, when Keller threw Robertson out because of drug use and his
seedy friends, Earl Robertson was there again, helping his son move his
furniture back to their Westminster Drive home, Keller recalls.
"He planned to stay with his parents until after the Thanksgiving holidays,"
Keller said.
Three days after the Robertson moved back in with Earl and Terry Robertson, he
bludgeoned them to death with a claw hammer, ignoring his mother's screams for
mercy.
On Friday, almost a week after a York County jury found him guilty of murder,
it showed Robertson no mercy either, sentencing him to death for killing his
parents.
During the 25-year-old's two-week trial, a tortured picture emerged of his drug
abuse and "chaotic" family life.
But that portrayal has left acquaintances, educators, friends and fellow church
members emotionally torn and angry.
They are angry at how the victims were portrayed as abusive, dysfunctional
parents, instead of the loving, concerned parents they knew.
They also are left holding on to a host of memories and an equal number of
unanswered questions. What if anything could they have done to prevent the
killings?
"I've had dreams the last four nights," said Keller, who shared a bedroom,
drank beer and played pool with Robertson. "Maybe I could have said something,
done something. I could have taken him to church."
But Robertson was no stranger to church. The Robertsons were longtime members
of Oakland Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Pastor William Pender and his parishioners still are trying to come to terms
with the murders.
"You have shock and disbelief. How can this happen? You have a lot of anger.
How could this happen? These were folks like us," Pender said. "There is a lot
of identification."
His fondest memories of Earl and Terry Robertson is of the couple waltzing at a
junior league dance.
"That sticks in my mind. Watching them dance together," Pender said. "The sense
of them being cut off; their life is gone. That shouldn't happen."
Soon after Pender came to Oakland in 1989, he remembers calling Robertson over
to help his wife plant shrubs in the garden.
"This is a kid we knew. He was in Sunday school, youth group; he was in
scouting," Pender said.
"Everybody that knew him well, knew there were some issues. There were some
rough edges but no anticipation of anything like this," Pender said.
From outward appearances, the Robertsons were a typical middle-class family.
Friends recall that Earl, a Springs Industries executive, and his wife settled
in Rock Hill after stints in Fort Mill and Michigan.
But Robertson, the older son, was a "a strange child, tall, thin, frail and
often picked on," said family friend Linda Hook.
"He walks into the room, and he is the brunt of the jokes," said Hook referring
to Robertson's high school years.
The Hooks attended the same church as the Robertsons and often went out to
dinner together.
Dr. George Hook III, Linda's husband, was Earl Robertson's friend and golfing
buddy. Her son Kyle, who is now at the University of Virginia Law School, was
Robertson's classmate at Northwestern High School.
"He was constantly being put down. Mean things were said about him," Linda Hook
said. "I said to my son, "Don't make it worse. Don't be a contributing
factor.'"
Hook saw Robertson largely through the eyes of a parent, hers and Terry
Robertson's, who just wanted her "klutzy" older son to be like the other kids.
"They honestly tried to get him involved in the normal things," Hook said.
But despite his parents' best efforts, Robertson found trouble.
"He started having flirts with the law when he was in junior high, doing things
that he shouldn't do, then he started doing things that were more serious,"
Hook recalled.
Robertson attended the Catawba School, now called Westminster Catawba Christian
Academy, from the fourth to ninth grade. He participated in the student
council. His mother was a constant presence.
"It's a small school. We all knew each other. He was part of our school," said
Principal Kathy Troutman, who was a teacher back then. "I knew Terry and Earl
personally, not just professionally."
The murders and the trial has taken its toll, Troutman said.
"It's not just a former student. It's somebody you knew personally," she said.
"It's really hard. You have mixed emotions. It hits home."
Troutman didn't testify at the trial, but Mike Faulkner, another former
teacher, did.
Faulkner taught Robertson geography and Western civilization in the seventh and
eighth grades at the Catawba School.
Faulkner, who is now an administrator with the Clover school district,
remembers his former student and his mother well. Robertson would get in
trouble; his mother would try to get him out.
"He was really unaccustomed to being held responsible for his actions. He
always felt he had a way out," Faulkner said. "The way out was his mother."
But Robertson didn't necessarily rebel against discipline, Faulkner said.
"The more I was consistent with discipline, the more he warmed up to me, as if
he wanted someone to correct him," Faulkner said.
Faulkner said he is saddened but not surprised at the way things turned out for
Robertson.
"We had mentioned that if there was not some therapy, there was a jail cell or
a cemetery plot with his name on it," Faulkner said.
Robertson's problems were very apparent when he was a member of the Boy Scouts,
said former Scout Master Gary Williams, who led Troop 33 while Robertson was a
member.
Robertson left Troop 33 after Williams refused to let him try for his Eagle
Scout badge, one of the highest awards in scouting.
Those familiar with the family said the Robertson boys, James and Chip, felt a
lot of pressure to follow in their father's footsteps.
"The parents had goals for these boys and insisted they make them. That's not
bad, but Jimmy was pressured to get that Eagle because Earl got that Eagle,"
Williams said.
It was a pattern.
"Earl was an Eagle Scout; Earl went to Georgia Tech; Jimmy went to Georgia
Tech. Jimmy wanted to be an Eagle Scout," Williams said. "The sons were
fulfilling goals that parents had for them."
From the Catawba School, Robertson went to Northwestern High School. As a
junior, he won a scholarship to be an exchange student in West Germany for his
senior year.
Longtime family friend Linda Hook's son Kyle was Robertson's classmate. While
Robertson spent his senior year in Germany, Kyle Hook became the salutatorian
for Northwestern in 1992.
Linda Hook is convinced that the year Robertson spent in Germany, while it was
good for him academically, didn't help him as a person, especially one who was
just about to enter college.
"He goes over there, then he comes home and in three months, he's on his own
again," Hook said. "We have a lot of freedom going on here with somebody who is
not ready to handle it."
In the fall of 1992, like his father decades before him, Robertson enrolled in
Georgia Tech's college of engineering. Two years later, he was expelled,
acquaintances say, because of his gambling.
"He didn't earn a degree," was all Georgia Tech spokeswoman Amelia Gambino
would say.
By 1995, Robertson was doing time. He was convicted of burglarizing his
neighbor's home. He served twelve months in Trenton and Turbeville facilities
as a youthful offender for those crimes. The petty offenses had turned serious.
"He came over and was talking, and then he turned around and robbed us. Did it
when he knew we weren't home," said William Wood, the neighbor whose home was
burglarized. "You think you know somebody, and you don't. We didn't see all of
the stuff. Some of the other neighbors saw him as a troublesome kid all along."
Wood sat in the courtroom listening to the closing arguments as Robertson's
attorneys pleaded for his life Friday. He left after the judge charged the
jury. At 10:35 p.m. Friday, Wood's daughter called to tell him that Robertson
was sentenced to die. Wood agreed with their decision.
"The fact that you can murder your parents and sit there emotionless for the
most part. Like (16th Circuit Solicitor) Tommy Pope said, they were crocodile
tears," Wood said about the tears Robertson cried during his two-week trial.
"It gives closure to the whole situation," Wood said. "I think he still thought
he'd get away with it."
* Herald Staff Writer Sarah O'Donnell contributed to this column.
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Joe1orbit
As promised, here is another article detailing the life and times of a
child-slave named james Robertson in South Caroline, who just got sentenced on
fRiday to be legally murdered by his society, for doing nothing more than
slaughtering the two people to whom he was enslaved at birth, and forced to
live his life as a slave to, without ANY legitimate attempt on society's part
to PROTECT him, a helpless child, by subjecting his creators to Mandatory
Parental Competency testing.
The details of the TREMENDOUS physical and mental TORTURE and abuse that
victim James was subjected to, are outlined in the first news item. When you
THINK of how the jury chose to IGNORE these facts and impose a legal murder
upon James, you realize that NOTHING less than the ANNIHILATION of the entire
human race, could serve as APPROPRIATE vengeance for the perverse injustice
that james has been subjected to for his entire life, and WILL be subjected to
for the rest of his life.
Stay strong, James. You are a MARTYR to the insanity and malevolence of your
diseased society. A martyr of the HIGHEST order.
Take care, JOE
The following two news articles both appear courtesy of the 3/27/99 online
edition of The Rock Hill Herald newspaper:
Expert, family friends give reason to spare Robertson's life
By Jeffrey Collins The Herald
(Published March 27, 1999)
YORK - The jury deciding whether James Robertson should be executed for beating
his parents to death heard his description of the killings from an unexpected
source Thursday: a defense expert.
"Sprayed Tilex in eyes and buried claw hammer in father's head," sociologist
Toni Cascio said, reading from notes during cross-examination. "Father put up
fight with hammer in head. Struck him 200 times with hammer and baseball bat.
Twenty-two years of hatred comes out."
Robertson was convicted Saturday of murdering his parents, Earl and Terry
Robertson, in their Westminster Drive home in November 1997. Early this
afternoon, the six-man, six-woman jury, who listened intently throughout most
of the day, is expected to begin deliberating whether to sentence the
25-year-old to death or life in prison without parole.
This afternoon in the same courtroom, Robertson's accomplice, Meredith Moon,
will be sentenced. Moon, 19, originally was charged with murder but pleaded
guilty to reduced charges of accessory after the fact of murder in exchange for
her testimony earlier in Robertson's trial. She will face 20 to 60 years in
prison.
On Thursday, defense attorneys used pleas for mercy from friends of Robertson's
family, as well as Cascio's testimony about family problems, to show jurors
mitigating factors that might convince them to spare the killer's life.
"Jimmy came from a very chaotic home. There was a variety of things going on
including physical abuse, mental abuse, as well as mental illness throughout,"
Cascio said.
Earlier in the day, Robertson cried as family friends pleaded for mercy. He
remained emotionless, however, as 16th Circuit Solicitor Tommy Pope had Cascio
read her notes on her interview with Robertson.
Cascio said Robertson told her that he called Moon early Nov. 25, the morning
of the killings, because she was infatuated and "would have done anything for
him."
He told Cascio that he began telling Moon his plans for the murders.
"Discuss which bat to use. No wooden, signed and autographed. Wouldn't want to
ruin it," Cascio read from her notes.
Robertson said he waited until his dad went in the shower so there would be
noise. He told Cascio that he took the phone off the hook and placed a knife in
the hallway in case his father walked in.
Terry Robertson screamed as she struggled with him, Cascio said, and Robertson
said those screams still haunt him today. After his mother was dead, he went
downstairs.
Robertson then told Moon, "One down, one to go," according to Cascio's notes.
After ambushing and killing his father, Robertson said he went in the bedroom
and hit his mother one more time to make sure she was dead, Cascio said. Then
he went downstairs, according to the sociologist's notes.
But Robertson thought he heard his father breathing and considered getting a
drill to finish the murder.
Instead, Robertson said, he took the bat upstairs and beat his father again,
kicking him with his toe to make sure he was dead, Cascio said.
Robertson told Cascio that Moon feared for her life, but he did not attack her.
He later told Cascio that he thought Moon's testimony was not enough to convict
him.
While Robertson and Moon drove to Philadelphia to see Robertson's younger
brother, Chip, the defendant called home and found out the phone was back on
the hook, according to the sociologist's notes.
Robertson's plan was falling apart.
"Too smart to let this happen," Cascio read from her notes.
In direct examination from Jim Boyd, Robertson's attorney, Cascio read another
portion of Robertson's statement, in which he recounted the hours immediately
after the crimes.
Just before the killings, he had snorted 10 times the average dose of Ritalin
to obtain a cocaine-like high. "Shook for first five to six hours," Robertson
said of the trip. "What did I just do? Ritalin wore off. Haven't slept or ate
for 36 hours."
Cascio told the court she used medical, employment, therapy and prison records,
along with interviews with family and friends and writings from Terry
Robertson's notebook to profile the family.
Terry Robertson suffered from a number of mental problems, Cascio said. Even
though she never openly admitted to it, Cascio said her review of Terry
Robertson's records suggested she was sexually abused as a child.
Cascio based her findings on hallucinations, episodes of self-mutilation, and
suicidal thoughts Terry Robertson related to her therapist.
"She saw ice cubes turn into babies, red pills turn into worms and another time
she saw a kid with a tail," Cascio said.
Earl Robertson had a short temper and was physically and mentally abusive
toward his sons, according to Cascio's findings.
James and Chip Robertson told Cascio that their father would beat them with a
belt two or three times a week growing up. One time, Robertson said, his father
grabbed him by the neck on a balcony.
Terry Robertson's depression may have made her detached from her older son,
Cascio said. He inherited her bipolar, or manic-depressive disorder, and also
had suicidal thoughts.
Cascio said that Robertson could feel his own pain but could not feel the pain
of other people. Also, she found that Robertson thought his home life was so
bad that "he saw no way out other than violence."
"Jimmy's adolescence was very difficult. Kids would shun him, and he had a
difficult time forming relationships," Cascio said.
Prior to Cascio's testimony, James Robertson's seventh- and eighth-grade
teacher at Westminster Catawba Christian School told the court Robertson was "a
bright kid" but "undisciplined."
"James was never forced to be accountable or responsible for his misbehavior,"
said Michael Faulkner, who added that Terry Robertson once disagreed although
two adults had witnessed Robertson's misconduct.
Earlier testimony showed that Robertson's parents paid for his gambling debts,
car and clothes, even after he was kicked out of Georgia Tech.
During the morning, several of Earl and Terry Robertson's friends came into
court to beg the jury to have mercy.
George Hook, a dentist and a golfing buddy of Earl Robertson's, described his
dead friend as a caring man. "I'm asking this jury for mercy " let's not be the
last one to throw the stone," he said.
As the day came to a close, more friends testified.
"I'm asking for mercy. I know Jim is a smart man. I think Jimmy could be an
asset for other people who are incarcerated," said Howard "Buzzy" Hall, who was
in Earl and Terry Robertson's Sunday school class at Oakland Avenue
Presbyterian Church.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Therapist had no choice in testifying
By Jeffrey Collins The Herald
(Published March 27, 1999)
Rock Hill family therapist Skip Meyer admitted his testimony Thursday violated
every principle of his profession's code of patient-therapist confidentiality.
But he had no choice. The defense acquired Meyer's therapy records for Earl
Robertson, Terry Robertson and James Robertson after a courtroom fight in
September.
During most of his testimony, Meyer either read the records out of a black
binder or looked straight ahead at the court reporter. Most witnesses face the
attorney when being questioned.
Deputy Solicitor Kevin Brackett asked Meyer, "She (Terry Robertson) would be
mortified by what went on here today?"
"Yes, personal appearances meant a great deal to her," Meyer said.
Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Tommy Pope spent a great deal of his
cross-examination of sociologist Toni Cascio questioning how isolated incidents
can be used to show larger trends.
In cross-examination, Pope pointed out that Cascio's finding of physical and
domestic abuse by Earl Robertson were based on only a few isolated reports
given by his sons.
Cascio said the individual reports came together to form a stronger story.
"But if you take it apart, not only does it not stand alone, it doesn't stand
up at all," Pope said.
Cascio, who was testifying as a witness in a trial for the first time, used a
variety of records to evaluate the family. Her findings included mental and
physical abuse and the possibility of domestic violence.
But Pope wondered if she had an opinion that supported the prosecution's theory
of the crime.
"Is there an evaluation for just plain mean or just plain greedy?" Pope said,
echoing the opening statement in which he said James Robertson killed his
parents to collect their $2.2 million estate.
Also during Cascio's testimony, Pope pointed out that James Robertson was
saddened because a certain group of people would not visit him.
"Family friends didn't think of me. I lost two parents," Robertson said,
according to Cascio's notes.
