Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993 TAG: 9302230095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Long
TRIAL BEGINS IN BEDFORD KILLING
THE JURY WILL HEAR two very different sides of the story about how a dispute over the price of a car ended in the death of a Thaxton man. The trial of the youth accused in the crime began Monday.Leonard Nathaniel Hodges wasn't looking for trouble as he sat drunk on his front porch in September talking to a young neighbor about squirrel hunting.
Nearby, his 1973 Nova was parked in the yard.
A "For Sale" sign was propped in the windshield.
That was the scene Bedford County prosecutor Jim Updike painted of of the afternoon Hodges was shot to death.
But David "Doodle" Robertson and his 17-year-old son, Brian "Nook" Robertson, were not looking for trouble either that same afternoon. They had given a relative a ride and were headed back to their Thaxton home when they stopped to ask Hodges about the price of the Nova.
That was how Brian Robertson's defense attorney, Harry Garrett, set the scene at the opening of the youth's murder trial Monday in Bedford County Circuit Court.
Somehow, trouble ensued on that September day.
Updike and Garrett agreed that an argument flared between Hodges and the older Robertson, who also had been drinking heavily. "These two men started fussing about the price of the car," Updike said in his opening statement Monday.
Hodges reportedly wanted $2,000 or $3,000.
It didn't matter that Hodges, 58, had a blood-alcohol level at twice the legal limit - or that he often liked to sit on his porch and drink, Updike said.
"It was his house and he wasn't bothering anybody. He just sat there and minded his own business."
Garrett in his opening statement, however, contended that Hodges wasn't exactly minding his own business. He said it was Hodges who started the dispute, after the Robertsons had politely asked about the price of the car and, uninterested, politely started to leave.
It was Hodges, Garrett said, who belligerently told Doodle Robertson to take his son and get off the property.
From there, tempers escalated between the two men, as the younger Robertson pleaded with his father to drive away. Garrett said the father and son were unarmed and weren't looking for trouble with Hodges.
At the same time, however, they offered to give the young neighbor, Preston Caldwell, who had been sitting on the porch with Hodges, a lift home. Caldwell, also 17, was a friend of the Robertsons.
Caldwell had been squirrel hunting earlier that day. He had with him a .22-caliber rifle. He stashed the weapon in the cab of the Robertsons' pickup truck and climbed in the back.
Doodle Robertson then backed the pickup out of Hodges' driveway.
But he didn't drive off, as his son pleaded. Instead, he stopped the truck in the road and got back out to continue the argument.
What happened next - or perhaps why it happened - is the question a Bedford County jury will have to decide. Did 17-year-old Brian Robertson shoot Hodges because he thought Hodges was about to shoot his father? Or did he just gun him down to shut him up?
Updike argued Monday that Brian Robertson didn't shoot Hodges to defend his father. He pointed to the number of times Hodges was shot - four. All of the bullets hit Hodges in the chest.
He told the jury to look at the other circumstances.
As Doodle Robertson and Hodges argued, Brian Robertson took Caldwell's squirrel rifle and held it up to show Hodges he had a weapon.
Hodges himself struggled to his feet to fetch a shotgun from just inside his front door. Physically disabled from a brain disorder caused by his alcoholism, Hodges had difficulty walking without a cane, Updike said. With the shotgun in hand, Hodges stood in the doorway to his home. "When he's got the shotgun, the shotgun becomes his cane," Updike said.
The safety latch on the gun remained in place.
Brian Robertson then fired at Hodges from the cab, but missed and sent a bullet into the Hodges' living room wall. Hodges fell and Doodle Robertson got back into his truck.
"It's not all over," Updike said.
About 50 feet down the road, Virginia 684, Doodle Robertson stopped the truck again as Hodges pulled himself to his feet. Robertson got out of the truck again, this time with the squirrel rifle. He held it up and showed it to Hodges as their argument continued.
Robertson then returned the rifle to the pickup, and to his son.
Brian Robertson then shot Hodges, who collapsed into his house. The safety on his gun was never moved. The shotgun was not fired.
A short time later, Robertson confessed to police that he had shot Hodges, but only because he thought Hodges was going to shoot his father, Updike said.
He also made one other statement. Updike said Robertson told one investigator, "Well, the man just shouldn't have been cussing us."
"And that's what it is all about," Updike said.
Garrett pointed to some other factors.
He said the Robertsons did not know Hodges, or of his physical disability. The safety latch on Hodges' shotgun was next to the trigger and was easily disengaged.
Brian Robertson never said anything threatening to Hodges. He repeatedly pleaded with his father to drive off, Garrett said. And he asked the jurors to consider Robertson's intelligence level, maturity and age.
A juvenile, Robertson is being tried as an adult and has a learning disability. He sat quietly through the opening statements as his father and mother watched and listened from seats behind him.
Garrett said he would put Robertson on the stand to testify.
"We want you to judge him as he is," he said.
Before opening statements, much of Monday's proceedings, from 9:30 a.m. to about 3 p.m., was used to select the 12 jury members and take them by bus to view the scene of the shooting.