Blood Ambush (9 page)
Authors: Sheila Johnson
At this unexpectedly graphic disclosure, Hicks became red-faced and grew visibly embarrassed. After a slight pause, he said, “Okay... .”
Barbara continued to sniffle, fidget in her chair, and wave her hands in the air as she spoke.
“Now, Vernon would never touch Darlene in a million years. He would never slap her, he would never do anything. But I knew they were having a lot of hard times with her son, and a couple of times, he had given her an ultimatum, ‘Either him or me.’
“She had even asked somebody that they worked with, at lunch, if they had an apartment to rent. She came to him and asked him how much they still owed, whatever, on that car that they still have. You know, there was some serious contemplation here going on.
“And during that time, we were talking a lot, okay? Now, I didn’t come back that night, because her sister came over with her nephew and they cooked pizza, and the nephew spent the night—supposedly, they were going to be watching an Astros game or a Dallas game. I don’t remember—it was a Texas game, it was football or baseball, I don’t remember, because I don’t watch any more of them. Come to find out the reason the little boy stayed there was because he had a girlfriend that lives locally there, that his mother does not approve of. He stayed on the phone and never watched the game. And I told Vernon, ‘Now, look, don’t let him disrespect you.’ You know what I mean. ‘You need to go in there and tell him, “I know what you are doing, this is enough. I’m not gonna do this behind your parents’ back.’”
“‘Or if he comes and says, “Can I use your car?” tell him, “No, without a doubt, if you’re gonna go anywhere, it’s to your house.”’ You know, this kind of stuff.”
Barbara had begun to cry and turned away from Hicks, sobbing, with her hands over her face.
“Barbara, did Vernon know that you and Bob were coming up there that day to talk to Darlene?” Hicks asked.
“No, I didn’t even know it,” Barbara said, still crying.
“Okay, do you think Bob may have talked to Vernon and told him he was coming?”
“No, no, no, no.” She was still crying and shaking her head.
“You don’t think he would have done that?” “No, because I think if Bob, if Vernon would have been there, too, he’d probably would have done the same exact thing. ’Cause of them both together, you know.”
“You think he would have killed Vernon, too?” Hicks asked.
“I don’t know if he killed Darlene! I don’t remember.
I do not remember.
You would think, the way that thing read in the paper, you, this slaughter, this is how they put it, and stuff like that. Seems like you would have seen blood and stuff in the water. And you know, and in my mind ... I pulled it up when my sister told me and I said, ‘No way, because I was looking for homes in Rome.’ That’s why I was in Rome during that time, because I had went to see a banker and I was supposed to go see a lady with AACA, which helped people with disability get houses, and stuff like that, and I couldn’t see her.”
I do not remember.
You would think, the way that thing read in the paper, you, this slaughter, this is how they put it, and stuff like that. Seems like you would have seen blood and stuff in the water. And you know, and in my mind ... I pulled it up when my sister told me and I said, ‘No way, because I was looking for homes in Rome.’ That’s why I was in Rome during that time, because I had went to see a banker and I was supposed to go see a lady with AACA, which helped people with disability get houses, and stuff like that, and I couldn’t see her.”
“Well, Barbara—” Hicks began.
“I even have all my money willed to Vernon and Darlene,” Barbara said, leaning forward in her chair.
“Well, if you think about it, you know,” Hicks said, “if Bob hadn’t killed her, why did he throw the gun away? Why did y’all throw her purse away? Why did y’all throw your clothes away when y’all got home?”
“I know,” Barbara began, waving her arms and moving around in her chair. “I know that part because my face was busted and we didn’t know where the set of glasses was, and all that kind of stuff, you know. And he figured they might be able to find it, and I only had a little piece of glass, my face was gashed open, here I’m bleeding in her car, and you know what I’m saying.”
“Who was driving Darlene’s car? Was it you or was it Bob?”
“It was Bob,” Barbara answered Hicks, then asked him if there were only three empty shotgun shells found at the scene. He told her he wasn’t sure, since he wasn’t the one who collected them.
“We started freaking when he realized that my, well, I knew right off the bat my face was slashed, but anyhow ...”
Barbara said that in her earlier interview, she had been told that Bob waved at one of the witnesses and took off his shirt, and she raised up her head and looked, and that’s when the witness recognized her, before she put her head back down.
“Why did Bob hit you?” Hicks asked.
“I think to get me out of the way, because, you know, I was kind of like, I—I, he hit me with the butt, the back end of the gun, kind of this way. (She demonstrated.) I don’t know if it was just like a ‘get out of the way’ type thing. We never talked about it. We never talked about it.”
“Were you saying anything when he hit you or anything?” Hicks asked.
Barbara seemed confused.
“I didn’t know what was gonna happen, okay? I didn’t know what was gonna happen.”
“Did he hit you before or after—”
“Never, but he had a major fight with his father the month before ... ,” Barbara interrupted.
“Listen, listen,” Hicks said. “Did he hit you before or after he shot the shotgun?”
“Before. That’s what I’m saying. I didn’t see. I knew there was a body there, but I didn’t see red.”
“Okay, that’s why you couldn’t see her, because he had already hit you with the gun and broken your glasses?”
“Correct,” Barbara said. “I could see the figure of the person, but I couldn’t see red. The way, you know, her being ‘slaughtered,’ seems like there would have been a lot of blood and gore. There was none.”
“Well,” Hicks said, “you know, I could understand if you didn’t see, you know, a lot of things because, like you said, your glasses were broken and you could just see shapes and things like that. And if you had just been hit in the face with a shotgun butt, too, that would affect your vision some, too, you know.”
“Well,” Barbara said, “he didn’t say something. He didn’t say, like, ‘Okay, now it’s over. Now she’s dead.’ he just said, ‘Maybe that will scare the shit out of her.’”
“Okay,” Hicks said, “and after he quit shooting, y’all just moved the car up there and y’all got in your vehicle and left?”
“Right, we didn’t speed off. We didn’t do nothing. You know, there’s probably on the teleprompter [
sic
] of us going in, getting gas at the gas station, just calm like this, because I thought he was just gonna scare the shit out of her. I think that’s what he did, too.”
sic
] of us going in, getting gas at the gas station, just calm like this, because I thought he was just gonna scare the shit out of her. I think that’s what he did, too.”
24
Hicks tried to learn more about the station where Barbara and Bob had stopped for gas after leaving the scene.
“You said earlier that y’all threw the purse in a Dumpster behind a gas station?” he asked.
“At the same gas station that we went in and got gas and I got something to drink. There should be something on their video.” Barbara gave more specifics about the location of the gas station, and said the store’s video should show her dropping a dollar while paying.
“I was kind of shaky. I really couldn’t see, whatever, and stuff. I know the clerk noticed my face and, anyhow, she came back out there and she handed me my dollar back, and she said, ‘Ma’am, I think you dropped this.’”
Having gotten sufficient information concerning the location of the gas station, Hicks then turned the conversation toward the whereabouts of the shotgun.
“One more thing I really wanted to ask you— I think you told Brent what had happened to the shotgun. Can you tell me where you think it’s at, since you’ve had time to rest and maybe [things have] come back to you a little better? You told him last night it was between Rome and Cartersville. Was it in the river? There’s only one river between Rome and Cartersville, the Etowah River.”
“That’s what I told him,” Barbara said. “I thought it was the Etowah.”
“Were you driving the vehicle, or was it Bob?”
“He was driving at first. Bob can’t see, there’s certain distances Bob can’t see. He had eye surgery.”
“Were you driving when y’all were at the river, or was Bob driving?”
Barbara said that she was driving, and said that Bob threw the gun out of the truck window.
“You know why I think he threw it away?” she asked. “Because he put the shells in the gun with his fingers and he knew y’all were gonna get his fingerprints.”
Hicks asked Barbara if the gun had been wrapped in the green plastic wrap that was found in the apartment and around Darlene Roberts’s neck.
“It was wrapped in that plastic stuff way, way before that,” she said.
“Okay, but when he threw it in the river, did it have the plastic stuff wrapped around it?”
“If I remember correctly, yes,” Barbara told him. “But this is what’s haunting me. He never said, ‘Okay, she’s dead.’ He never said, ‘Okay, that’s the end of her.’ He never said anything like that. He just said, ‘I bet that scared the shit out of her.’ And I don’t remember seeing, you know, I’ve cleaned many a fish and I know how much they bleed and stuff and they are slaughtered. I would have seen something. I would have seen red in the water.”
“Possibly, or, you know, you might not have,” Hicks said.
Barbara suddenly laughed loudly. “I don’t know,” she said, “I didn’t see any.” Then she paused and said, “That’s not funny.”
“No, ma’am, it’s not funny,” Hicks told her.
“No, it’s not,” Barbara said, “it’s just kind of a hysterical laugh.”
“It’s not funny,” Hicks said again, “but if your vision is as bad as you say it is, you may not have seen.”
“I was standing right next to him,” Barbara said. “His vision’s off between a certain distance and a certain distance, and that’s noted on the previous report, because that’s why he couldn’t see anything about what this guy had on, because he could not recognize nothing, you know. That’s why I’m very, very curious about how many shells were found.”
Hicks thought for a moment before answering.
“I’ll tell you what, if they get you over and the judge signs your extradition papers, we’ll come get you first thing in the morning and then I’ll have Brent in our office, and you said, you know, you’re more comfortable with Brent. You and Brent can sit down, and Brent can probably tell you a little bit more about the details than I can.”
Hicks looked surprised when Barbara suddenly veered off on another subject.
“See, you know, there are other things that come to mind. Like he’d always say his dad’s name was Peter.”
“You’re talking about Bob?” Hicks asked.
“And his dad’s name is Peter, and I’ve been around him many times, whenever he’d saved a person’s life doing brain surgery and stuff and they would say ... and they’d come up to him and say, ‘You saved my mother’s life, you saved my wife’s life.’ He’d say, ‘I didn’t. God did. He just gave me the instruments.’ I told [Brent] that yesterday, too.”
“Barbara,” Hicks said, “I don’t have all the answers. I can’t tell you, I wasn’t there. I can’t see through your eyes and see what happened and why it happened, and—”
“It happened because I had an affair, that’s why it happened,” she said.
“You know, you and Bob were the only two that was there that could tell us what happened. I think you’re trying to do the right thing, so let’s see if we can get you to the people over here, where you can sign the papers and we’ll come get you in the morning. I’ll have Brent there as soon as you get to Centre. And then you and Brent, and if you want me to sit down in there with y’all, or just you and Brent, or whatever, and if you think of some more things between now and then, we’ll be more than glad to sit down and talk to you.”
Barbara and Hicks talked again about getting her attorney to be present if she chose to have him there for any further questioning, and Hicks assured her that if her attorney couldn’t be there in Centre for any reason, a local attorney would be appointed for her. Then Barbara suddenly changed direction again and dropped what could prove to be a very important piece of information.
“You know, when my little sister called me and told me [Darlene] was dead, and I think that’s when I called Vernon, his first words were ‘What in the hell are you calling me for? What the hell are you calling me for?’ and I’m going, ‘I just found out.’”
Barbara began to sob.
“And if you had his phone bugged or whatever,” she told Hicks, “you’ll hear that. Because earlier, he’s trying to act like he hadn’t been around, ’cause he said, ‘They say they saw a woman around one hundred forty pounds, light brown, light blond hair, that looked like you,’ and this and that, and whatever, and all this kind of stuff. ‘You could have done anything with your hair
since I haven’t seen you in five years,
’ and I said, ‘No, man, we ...’ and he stopped me and said, ‘My phone is being taped,’ and stuff like that, so I was took away from it, you know?”
since I haven’t seen you in five years,
’ and I said, ‘No, man, we ...’ and he stopped me and said, ‘My phone is being taped,’ and stuff like that, so I was took away from it, you know?”
If Barbara’s account of the phone conversation with Vernon Roberts was accurate, he clearly did not want to acknowledge that he might have spent some intimate times with her in the months prior to Darlene’s death.
25
Barbara Ann Roberts and Robert John Schiess III were extradited to Cherokee County, Alabama, on April 21, 2006, as Barbara had wanted. She arrived early, and Schiess, who had not signed his extradition as quickly as Barbara had, was brought later. As soon as she arrived, Barbara immediately told jail officials that she wanted to talk with SA Brent Thomas again. Thomas arrived at the jail shortly before lunchtime, and he and Investigator Mark Hicks met with Barbara at 11:06
A.M.
A.M.
Once again, they read Barbara her rights and told her that she would need to sign a rights waiver form before they could talk. Barbara then decided that she couldn’t make up her mind whether or not she wanted to talk again without the benefit of having an attorney present. After about five minutes of deliberation, she told the officers that she wanted to have her attorney present before she made any statement or answered any questions.
She was returned to her cell without any further conversation, the interview ending with nothing having been accomplished except a trip to the interview room. Meanwhile, at the Cherokee County Courthouse, across the street from the county jail, District Judge Sheri W. Carver set bond for both Barbara and Schiess at $1 million each.
Over the next couple of days, while Barbara was still considering another session of talk with the investigators, Investigator Bo Jolly was preparing his evidence against Bob Schiess. He presented an affidavit for a search warrant to Judge Carver, asking for a blood sample from Schiess to compare his DNA to blood found at the crime scene. There was blood inside Darlene’s vehicle and possible DNA samples that were recovered from other evidence that he believed would be a match to Schiess.
To justify his request for the blood sample, Jolly outlined the facts and evidence that tied Schiess to the crime, as well as Barbara’s statements incriminating him. Judge Carver signed Jolly’s request for the blood samples from Schiess on April 25, and the sample was collected at the Cherokee County Jail.
The next day, on April 26, Barbara once again asked to speak to the investigators. Since she had initiated the conversation, Mark Hicks and Brent Thomas were careful to advise her again of her rights, and she stated for the record that she did wish to talk to them without her attorney being present. She was told that she had the right to stop the interview at any time, which she said she understood.
During the following conversation, Barbara jumped from one subject to another many times, giving additional details on different aspects of the investigation. She first asked if the Cherokee County district attorney (DA) had been told that she had been cooperating with the investigation. She wanted to know if he might lower her bond because of the assistance she was giving the officers.
Barbara told the officers that Darlene wasn’t chased with the car. At first, she said that she wasn’t driving the car, that she was a passenger in the car. She then said that she didn’t want to say who was driving the car, but a short time later, she said that Schiess was the driver.
Another claim Barbara made during this interview was that she and Schiess only had about three shells for the shotgun. A shot was fired at Darlene, she said, while she was standing about halfway across the pond.
Barbara said that the black Dodge pickup, in which she and Schiess had come to Alabama, had been backed in at the gate at the entrance to the pasture. Schiess had the hood up, Barbara said, and he stepped out and flagged Darlene down when she came driving up the road. Bob talked to her and she got out of the car, Barbara claimed; then Bob and Darlene struggled and he tried to tie her hands with some nylon ties, but they wouldn’t work, so he used some gauze he had with him. She couldn’t remember if the shotgun was lying on the ground at this time, and she didn’t remember whether or not she gave Schiess the gun after he tied Darlene up.
“Somehow she got loose and started running to the pasture, and I chased her on foot,” Barbara said. “Bob got into Darlene’s car and drove it to the back side of the pasture and told me to get in the car, and I did.”
Barbara said they drove around farther into the pasture, looking for Darlene.
“As we were driving around the pond, we saw ripples in the water, and then we saw her.”
Barbara said that they stopped the vehicle and Schiess got out and shot at Darlene.
“I was hysterical then, and Bob hit me with the gun and broke my glasses, and he fired more shots,” she said. “I never saw any blood and couldn’t say whether the shots hit Darlene or not.
“I thought he just fired at her to scare her,” Barbara continued. “We got back into Darlene’s car and drove it back to the edge of the pasture, and left in the pickup truck.”
Barbara then told the investigators what had happened to some of the missing items they had been searching for.
“The reason I took her purse was because I had touched it with my bare hands. The cell phone was thrown out onto the side of the road, and the purse was thrown into a Dumpster at a gas station in Rome. Then when we got home, we threw our clothes in the Dumpster at the apartment in Conyers.”
On a surprising closing note, Barbara told the officers that the police still did not have the person who killed Darlene in custody. Vernon Roberts, she said, was involved with the murder and had called her five times on her cell phone on the day Darlene was killed. She also told them that while at Vernon’s house the previous October, when they were having their alleged liaison while Darlene was out of town, Vernon had told her that he couldn’t afford another divorce.
Barbara had one more piece of information for the record; she claimed that while she was being held in the Cherokee County Jail, a deputy in uniform had come into her cell and beat her on the back of the legs, leaving bruises. The officers photographed the bruises, but Barbara apparently did not have a name for her alleged assailant. She was returned to her cell, and the investigators wondered how long it would be before she summoned them for their next conversation.
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