Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 26, 1993 TAG: 9302260346
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Long
TEEN FOUND GUILTY IN CAR DISPUTE KILLING
Brian Robertson, convicted Thursday of second-degree murder for the slaying of a Thaxton man in September, could face 22 years in prison for the crime if he is punished as an adult.Or he could be treated as a juvenile and given a much lesser punishment.
Robertson, 17, stood trial this week in Bedford County Circuit Court as an adult for killing Leonard Nathaniel Hodges during a heated argument Hodges had with the youth's father over a car.
A jury took 3 1/2 hours to convict Robertson of second-degree murder. He had been charged with first-degree murder. Robertson also was convicted of illegal use of a firearm in the commission of a murder.
Robertson stared blankly at the defense table after the verdict was read, while his girlfriend, mother and other family members sobbed loudly from seats behind him.
As a juvenile, Robertson's sentence could be set by Bedford Circuit Judge William Sweeney. In most jury trials involving adults, punishment usually is set by the convicting jury.
Sweeney now has the option, because of Robertson's age, to sentence the youth using adult guidelines or he can exercise his discretion and do what he believes would be best for Robertson.
A sentencing date was not set.
Under adult terms, Robertson could face a maximum of 22 years in state prison; 20 years on the second-degree murder conviction and two years on the firearm charge.
His defense attorney, Harry Garrett, said he hoped Sweeney would opt for juvenile punishment. He said prison "sure in hell ain't going to help him."
Garrett talked often during the four-day trial about Robertson's limited emotional and intellectual capacity. He dropped out of Liberty High School last year and has an IQ of about 60.
Garrett said the conviction was a tragedy compounding another tragedy.
Robertson walked from the courtroom arm-in-arm with his girlfriend, followed by about a dozen family and friends, including his parents, Anita and David "Doodle" Robertson.
The group hurried from reporters and did not want to be interviewed. Robertson will remain free on bond until his sentencing. However, the court required him to live with a family friend rather than his parents.
Peggy Hodges, the widow of the victim, said she was satisfied by the verdict. She sat quietly in another part of the courtroom from the Robertsons when the jury's decision was read.
Her husband, who was retired from General Electric in Salem, was 58.
Going into deliberations, the jury of six women and six men had two scenarios to sort through. The first was given by prosecutor Jim Updike in his closing remarks to the panel Thursday morning.
Updike told the jury that Robertson's primary defense - that he shot Hodges to protect his father - was not exactly the way it happened. Updike said Hodges was not the "mean and violent" bad guy, as the defense had contended.
"If there was anybody who was defending himself, it was Leonard Hodges."
Updike cited the first shot Robertson fired at Hodges during an argument between Hodges and his father over the price of a 1973 Chevrolet Nova that Hodges had for sale in his yard. The shot missed Hodges, but turned out to be a key element of Updike's case.
That shot, Updike said, showed that Robertson and his father were a threat to Hodges. It wasn't the other way around.
When Brian Robertson then took aim at Hodges a second time, Updike said, Hodges again was the person threatened.
"I mean, which time is [Robertson] defending himself?" Updike asked the jury.
It wasn't self-defense, Updike argued. It was vengeance against Hodges.
"Because he cussed his daddy."
Updike also cited the number of times Robertson's shots hit Hodges - four. All were fatal shots that hit within a 10-inch section of Hodges' chest. "Dead center," Updike said. "That's right good shooting."
Updike told the jurors that the worst thing they could do for Robertson was to find him not guilty. "Then, he's going to walk out that door with his daddy knowing he's gotten away with murder."
Garrett, in his closing argument, also played to the jury's emotions.
"He's not guilty of any crime. He's a victim," Garrett said.
He portrayed Robertson as the victim of his own limited abilities and of his father's hot temper. "Maybe the wrong person is on trial here, but the sins of the father have been visited upon the son."
Garrett then focused on Hodges, offering a different portrait of the man from the non-threatening handicapped person Updike claimed he was. Hodges, according to Garrett, provoked the argument with Doodle Robertson by cursing at him when he showed no interest in the car at his asking price - $3,000.
Then, Hodges tried to reach for a companion's squirrel-hunting rifle.
Failing there, he fetched his shotgun from inside the front door to his house. Garrett contended Hodges never would have gone in for the shotgun if he didn't believe he could - or would - use it.
"I tell you, Leonard Hodges was the aggressor," Garrett said.
Further, Garrett contended that Hodges had his shotgun raised at Doodle Robertson when Brian Robertson shot Hodges. Most of the testimony indicated Hodges had the gun raised only to about knee-level.
"The gun could have come all the way up," Garrett suggested.
He went on to portray Hodges as a mean-spirited drunk with a history of violence and a love of guns. Garrett pointed to Brian Robertson's reputation as a peaceful person.
"Try to place yourselves in the mind of this boy and how he saw it," Garrett told the jurors.
"Did it appear reasonable to him to do what he did?"